Believing to have understood something about the essense of life, a monk left his monastery at a young age to travel through China. After many years, on his return his old master asked him: 'Tell me about the essence of life!' The monk answered: 'When there are no clouds over the mountain the moonlight penetrates the ripples of the lake.' The master looked at his former desciple in anger: 'You are getting old, your hair is grey, you have just a few teeth left and still you have no understanding of life.' The monk lowered his eyes, tears streaming over his face. After a few minutes he asked: 'Please, would you tell me the essence of life?' 'When there are no clouds over the mountain', responded the master, 'the moonlight penetrates the ripples of the lake!'

That riddle-ish story is the favorite koan of world-ly musician Stephan Micus.

Koan? Koans are stories used by Japanese Zen masters to help their students transcend the limits of the rational mind (probably the most famous of these is "What is the sound of one hand?")

You've got to go back over a 25 years to see just how important this story of the master, student and life has been to Stephan Micus. The text of the koan was put on the cover of his 1977 ECM record, appropriately titled KOAN. Micus chose that title because he felt that koans and "all good music" share the same capacity to liberate.

Capacity to liberate. Hmmm...I'll have to get back to that.

But first: why describe Micus as "world-ly"? He visits different parts of the world, seeking out, studying and making his own various exotic instruments and their related musics. On Life, for example, instruments are used from Burma (chimes), Ireland (tin whistle), Japan (sho), Bavaria (zither), India (dilruba), Egypt (nay), Ghana (talking drum) and Ethiopia (bagana). This is not "world music" (never really liked that term), this is world-ly music.

For 53 minutes, Micus tells the story employing his collection far-flung instruments and his voice (the koan's text is sung in Japanese). One particularly interesting aspect is the 'inverted' structure. As Micus describes it, most compositions begin at the simple end of things, building toward complexity. However, the nature of the story suggested an opposite approach: complex at the start (the introduction and back story of the monk and the old master's question), simple at the end (the master's answer, presented as a solo voice).

Emotionally, the results also range widely. From the stately and prayerful ending of "The Master's Answer" to the passionate explosion of "Naration One and The Master's Question". The story is well told, with much love and attention to detail.

The capacity to liberate? Music can do that? Yes. We 'use' music for many things. Entertainment. Distraction. Emotional salve. All are valid. I can look back at my own early listening years and see clearly the recordings that started cracks in my idea of what music could be (an 'out' Chick Corea album, A.R.C, comes to mind). That 'liberation' was a small (but important!) part of my transformation toward becoming the writer/musical obsessive that I am today.

Stephan Micus recognizes that music does indeed have the power to liberate. He's traveled all around this globe to prove it. What is the meaning of Life? We all have to decide for ourselves.

(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)