With all the attention given to guitars, keyboards, and synthesizers these days, it’s easy to overlook the oldest musical instrument on the planet: the flute. With examples made from bird and animal bones going back over 40,000 years, the flute has played a seminal role in the evolution of music on six continents.
For simplicity, ancient flutes can’t be beat: a tube, some holes — done! In Europe, the modern concert flute evolved to play complex classical music, but since the 1960s, a dedicated group of Native, Ambient and New Age artists has embraced older, simpler ethnic flutes from Native American, South American, Asian, and western folk cultures — combining them with reverberant environments and resonant percussion instruments as vehicles for meditation and healing.
On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the quiet evolution of indigenous aerophones, on a program called DEEP FLUTES. Music is by SHERRY FINZER & WILL CLIPMAN, R.CARLOS NAKAI, ANN LICATER, JAMES MARIENTHAL, VIANNEY LOPEZ, and RAPHAEL GROTEN.
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