| Profile: Coyote Oldman | |||
 | Using Native American flutes, ocarinas, Incan panpipes and original hybrid designs, Barry Stramp and Michael Graham Allen have collaborated as Coyote Oldman since 1985. The hallmark of Coyote Oldman's sound has been the interactive combination of lyrical primitive flute improvisations and real-time manipulation of their sound via echo, reverb and pitch shifting. | Native American iconography has been present throughout their ten album releases, yet the duo operates from a core sound in which many cultures are embodied. Utilizing a plethora of flutes and technologies, the music of Coyote Oldman ranges from the authentically traditional to the far-out and otherworldly. | 
|
|
On October 23rd, 1999, Coyote Oldman performed at The Gathering in Philadelphia. This rare live appearance was their first concert ever on the east coast of the USA. Coyote Oldman have also participated in the very prestigeous ECHOES "Living Room Concert Series".
| |||
"COYOTE OLDMAN are Michael Graham Allen and Barry Stramp. Their subtle, creative approach to the Native American flute has inspired a host of imitators, but no one has matched their inspired studio transformation of these archaic instruments of wood and breath into the ecstatic realm of ethereal sonics. House Made of Dawn achieves a seamless equilibrium between man and nature, earth and sky, sound and space.
Coyote Oldman open a gateway into a timeless world of sound with the first breath into their flutes. Between that first breath and the last exhalation, Coyote Oldman's Michael Graham Allen and Barry Stramp pull down a sound that could have come from some mythical gathering in a prehistoric kiva, or a cyberspace meeting 20 minutes into the future. Their name comes from Oldman Coyote, the trickster and sometimes fool of Native American mythology. It was the name of Allen's flute company and it hung on, even though none of those characteristics would apply to Coyote Oldman. But Allen and Stramp do play Native flutes, as well as Incan pan-pipes and ocarinas and they use Native American iconography to give their music some kind of metaphorical-spiritual grounding. Despite these Native cultural connections, Allen and Stramp make no glorification of their fractional Native ancestry. Instead, Coyote Oldman operates from a core sound in which many cultures are embodied. As much as they are playing Native music, you could also say they're playing Medieval hymns, 20th century space music or Tibetan chants. Coyote Oldman draws intrinsic links with other cultures, evoking, but not playing, the shakuhachi flute of Japan and the bansuri flute of India. |
Alabama-born Michael Graham Allen met Oklahoma-bred Barry Stramp in 1981 at an Oklahoma City crafts fair. Allen was there selling his hand-made Native flutes. At the time renowned Native flutist R. Carlos Nakai hadn't yet ignited the Native flute boom, and they were still a curiosity bordering on oblivion.
Allen is the founder, principal flutist and composer of the group. He is also the craftsman and earth voice of the duo. He researches the history of his instruments, tracking down flutes from many countries, but especially Native cultures of the western hemisphere. On this album you can hear flutes that Allen may have made a few days before the recording and clay ocarinas that might date back hundreds of years. Barry Stramp is the modernist of the group. Classically trained in concert flute and composition, he also studied engineering and physics. That means he can drop references to Pierre Boulez and IRCAM as well as DSP and FFT processing into a conversation that started about live performance. It's Stramp's skill at studio manipulation that turns the raw material of Allen's flutes into the expansive soundscapes that are Coyote Oldman. They work together, manipulating the sound in real time, feeding back off the echoes, reverb, and harmonization as if creating a superflute. There is a remarkable synergy between these musicians. They mix technologies, create hybrid flutes which sing like enormous train-whistles, creating Doppler effects through metallic tamboura-like drones, mysterious percussion and disembodied voices. It seems like no less than the sound of the universe opening up before you. Coyote Oldman are surfing the winds of a timeless sound." Source -- John Diliberto ECHOES | |
Related Links:
| ||
| Artists | ||