Sacred Elements-Sacred Sound – Keith Duke (Fish Recordings)

Many moons ago I had the dubious pleasure of studying what is known as EA (electro-acoustic) music at college. This genre had its beginnings in the French musique concrète movement of the 1950’s, and involves the splicing, manipulation and juxtaposing of recorded and synthesized sound fragments into (usually) god-forsaken sonic collages. In the fifties of course this would have been cutting-edge, radical and interesting stuff – albeit in a dry, male-dominated, nerdy sort of way. I personally found the Beatles’ foray into the genre: the immortal Revolution No.9… No.9… No.9…, a more effective and worthy creation than most of the works that the ‘proper’ composers had produced by that time. EA music, the child of concrète, is of course mixed inside a computer these days.

Perhaps the lasting value of musique concrète is that it encouraged us to listen more consciously to the intrinsic nature of sound(s), both real and artificial, in and out of their normal context. On hearing Sacred Elements – Sacred Sound I noticed the similarity: that this music requires a different way of listening. Keith Duke’s soundscapes present a collage of Tibetan singing bowls, other sacred instruments and natural sounds, and seem quietly insistent that the listener becomes gentled into a state of sensitive awareness. This ‘enhanced aural experiencing’ may then help reveal the unchanging nature of ever-present oneness/presence. Or rather, remind you to notice. Not that Mr Duke is making that claim; he wisely restricts himself to that over-used and rather wishy-washy word, healing – but to refer to certain musical instruments as ‘sacred’ surely implies that he thinks that they may be tools to aid such spiritual revelation or experience?

So can crafted sound really provide a path to god? We have to be careful here. Isn’t there a danger of addiction and becoming reliant on crutches if a ‘god-fix’ can only be experienced whilst listening to sacred instruments (or meditating, for that matter)? And is god/oneness/enlightenment really just another experience to be had?

Listening to this sincere and sensitively crafted CD reminded me once again that we can always listen with conscious awareness – and suddenly even everyday sounds are made magical, with the sounds of nature feeling the most authentic.

To make an appalling analogy: in the face of nature’s unrefined sonic progeny, the production of Mr Duke’s sacred music is akin to selective breeding and has obvious merits, whereas EA music starts to seem more like genetic engineering…