Kairos Collective | Európe

Review of Európe in New Folk Sounds

Reviews / Mediterranean, modal music, Dutch composer / By Marius Roeting

I previously reviewed Pîrî Reis, the album by the ensemble led by the Dutch composer Michiel van der Meulen, in glowing terms. My only criticism was its rather short playing time. Van der Meulen seems to have taken that to heart, as this time he delivers an album lasting around an hour.

His compositions are performed by almost the same group of musicians: Harris Lambrakis (ney), Giorgos Papaioannou (violin), Manolis Kanakakis (kanun) and Marija Katsouna (percussion), joined by guest appearances from Nikos Papaioannou (cello), Albert van der Meulen (accordion), Vagelis Karipis (riq) and Roel Sluis (vocals). The composer himself also plays the tambura on several tracks.

There are few changes to the line-up, and the same applies to my verdict. Once again, this is music of the very highest calibre. Improvisation and modality lie at its heart, rather than melody for its own sake. The subtitle is once again Contemporary Modal Music, and not a word of that description is exaggerated. The entire album is built on modal principles, drawing on the Persian maqam tradition with a touch of Mediterranean influence. The result sounds strikingly authentic without ever becoming rigidly traditional or conventional.

Van der Meulen inherited both his love of music and his gift for composition. His father, Albert, was one of the pioneers of what was then regarded as the rather exotic music of Greece and the Balkans, alongside his mentor Wouter Swets (both members of Čalgija), and it was from him that Michiel first absorbed these musical traditions. He later refined his craft under Ross Daly, the acknowledged master of modal music. And with what results: it is remarkable that such richly idiomatic compositions should flow from the pen of an unassuming Dutchman. Even more remarkable is his ability to assemble exactly the right musicians to bring them to life.

The performance standard is high, the transparancy of the various instruments excellent, and the compositions are challenging, captivating and imaginative. Van der Meulen deserves a statue!

© 2019 New Folk Sounds

Review of Európe in Rootstime

A theatre company? An online interiors and design shop? Those are just two of the places you might end up if you search the web for The Kairos Collective. Fortunately, about eighteen months ago I had the pleasure of reviewing Pîrî Reis, so the penny dropped the moment I put this CD into the player and heard the opening notes of ‘Hebros’. This was unmistakably the music of Michiel van der Meulen, the man who has made contemporary modal music something of his life’s work, and whose Pîrî Reis turned out to be, by quite some margin, the album most frequently played in the Heyvaert household last year.

Now that this new album has been with me for a few weeks, it seems destined to follow the same path. If you sit down with the accompanying booklet, you might, as an untrained listener, come away feeling rather too ignorant to understand what this music is all about. But while you may not be formally trained, you can still be an experienced listener—and then you simply hear what the booklet cannot quite explain. Or at least, what the more technical sections, dealing with scales, tonal centres and the maqam modal system, struggle to convey. In the opening pages of the notes, Michiel reflects on Europe’s place in today’s world and explains why he chose Europe as the album’s title.

Our beautiful continent is wonderfully situated: travel a relatively short distance in almost any direction and you find yourself in an entirely different world. This is the Europe that is ideally placed to be a meeting point, a place of connection and exchange. Yet politically it has expanded too quickly in too short a time and, perhaps for that very reason, has elected leaders who prefer building walls to bridges, excluding people rather than welcoming them, and asking us to entrust them with power that they have no intention of sharing.

The parallel with the myth of the Phoenician princess Europa is obvious. She was seduced by Zeus, who had transformed himself into a gentle bull, carried off on his back to Crete, raped there, and ultimately abandoned. And so we arrive in Crete, where we also find the musical heart of this album. Európe is conceived as a tribute to the three people who taught Michiel to love music. First comes his father, Albert, an accordionist who also appears on the album in the closing track, Trandafirul Rău Tânjește. Then there is the music teacher and ethnomusicologist Wouter Swets, who taught Albert van der Meulen and, more importantly, introduced Dutch audiences to the music of the Balkans and the Middle East through his ensemble Čalgija. The third figure is, inevitably, Ross Daly, the musician who revealed the world of modal music to an entire generation of listeners and who is based on Crete. Hence the connection.

Michiel composed the vast majority of the music himself and performs it with a group of close Greek musical friends, recording almost everything live. What he presents is, quite simply, the musical story of everything he has learned over the years. Different people and different places have each contributed something to the composer he has become today: the inventor of the most beautiful, sometimes unusual melodies that, once you have gotten used to them, find their way through your ears time and again, and may linger inside your head for days.

When I reviewed the previous album, I described it as “beauty by the yard”, and that is no less true here. Believe me when I say that you are unlikely to hear more beautiful music than this at the moment. Admittedly, the album asks something of its listener. It requires a degree of empathy and openness. But it is so utterly convincing that, after only a few listens, it has you completely under its spell. Unlike some of the leaders we elect, however, this is music that reminds us that sharing and caring belong together. A masterpiece!

(Dani Heyvaert)

© 2019 Rootstime

Review of Európe in Moors Magazine

Európe / Contemporary modal music

Michiel van der Meulen loves Europe—the continent where travelling a thousand kilometres in almost any direction can bring you to an entirely different world, where cultures meet, connect and enrich one another, and where remarkable things happen. It is a continent that can effortlessly absorb and embrace even more influences. It was this vision of Europe that inspired him to create the album Európe, in which the right music and an open mind come together.

The album is also a tribute to three people who have been of great importance to Van der Meulen. First, his father, Albert van der Meulen, with whom he played from an early age and who introduced him to the music of Eastern Europe. Then there is the musician and ethnomusicologist Wouter Swets, who introduced Dutch audiences to the music of the Balkans and the Middle East and educated two generations of musicians in those traditions. Finally, there is the master musician and composer Ross Daly, whose seminars on modal composition proved to be the missing piece of the puzzle. That was when everything fell into place.

Európe presents contemporary modal music composed by Van der Meulen and recorded with Greek musicians: genuinely new, modern European modal music, rooted in ancient European traditions. The unique musical voice of Michiel van der Meulen. Fabulously beautiful.

• Kairos Collective – Európe – TouMilou Records – distributed by Xango
• Order the CD online

© 2019 Moors Magazine