A music review from Susan Carr

Wings Music department is pleased to bring you a newly released CD called Hidden Sky, which is a prayerful tribute to the elephants by electric cellist Jami Sieber. Jami recorded Hidden Sky in Thailand with the Thai Elephant Orchestra, and on several tracks you will enjoy hearing the elephants playing xylophones, gongs, drums, and cymbals in accompaniment with the soothing sounds of her cello. As an added bonus, track 13 is a video for playing on a PC or Mac, where you can watch the elephants gently dance and sway their bodies and trunks in response to Jami’s music and then perform on their instruments. It is both amazing and joyful to see and listen to these incredibly intelligent animals expressing themselves so beautifully.

A portion of all proceeds benefits the care and preservation of the elephant.
 
Jami Sieber writes: “I could never have predicted that an animal such as an elephant, would summon me to awaken and recognize the inherent connection underlying all that appears separate. In the midst of the sheer joy that permeates life with the elephants, one must walk with the constant grief of their captivity and the perpetual threat of their extinction. In this CD, my mission has been to embody both the grief and the joy I knew while in their presence.
 
There, at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, I met Phong, the young elephant who played a xylophone and kissed me on my nose with his trunk, and Prathida, the drummer who followed the movement of my bow with her trunk as I played. With them and at least eight other orchestra members, I experienced a mystical collaboration I had never known before. This communion has forever changed the way I see and feel the natural world.
 
I have come to know that elephants have a creative rhythm, intelligence and language. It doesn’t matter whether or not their music fits our definition. What matters is that music is a bridge that connects us. The ineffable richness of my meeting with the elephants in the shared moment of our music sustains me and gives me hope that we may remember our connection to all beings on this beloved earth.”
 
So come visit us at Wings, sit on our comfortable red sofa, hook yourself up to a listening station, relax, and listen to a demo of Jami Sieber’s beautiful music with the elephants, as she invites you to “go to your elephant self.”