Blue Chip Orchestra - Red Sky Beat

A powerful fusion of European pop electronics and Native American ceremony from Blue Chip Orchestra.

Austria's Blue Chip Orchestra sets the earthy drumming, soulful chanting and hypnotic percussion of native music into a panoramic 3-D soundscape with awesome results. Strange beings appear in the Dakota myth of creation. ITE, the seductively beautiful daughter of an old sorcerer and his wife, lives underneath the earth. The young woman contrives to ensure a lucrative future and marries the god of the winds, TATE. She gives birth to the four winds but doesnt take care of her children too well, as her interests lie more in flirting with WI, god of the sun. This upsets and shames Wi's wife HANWI, the moon. There is of course a trickster pulling strings behind the scenes: the devilish IKTOMI, who enjoys tempting and ridiculing people.

But then SKAN, god of the sky enters, acting the part of authority and judge. As a severe punishment he separates moon and sun. Ite's pretty face is split into an ugly and beautiful half. After giving birth to a little whirlwind, she has to leave her family. Her husband Tate stays with the household.

The dreadful story almost repeats itself when Tate takes WHOPE into his tipi. Whope at first appears as a shimmering object; she turns out to be the daughter of the star people (perhaps hinting at the existence of ET's?) The winds all fall in love with her. Without any major quarrel she chooses OKAGA, the south wind, and the happy couple are given an elaborate wedding gift by all the invited gods. For their pleasure, they get the whole world. Is this the first human couple on earth?

Not at all. The scene switches without any further explanation. We are back with the wicked joker Iktomi and the double faced Ite, who have made a special deal. They both feel a bit bored and lonely. Ite wants her people to leave the underworld and live on top of the earth where they could at least have meat and clothing. Some of the courageous ones led by the young warrior TOKAHE are attracted to this luxury and finally settle in the land of pines and ghosts. For the Dakota people, they are the founders of humanity.

Ancestral stories like these are also found in the legends of the Australian Aborigine dream time or in the old shaman songs of central Siberia. Compared to them, our biblical story of Genesis seems to be as rational as those of our modern scientists. The similarity between the Jewish Genesis and our scientific picture of the world is certainly not accidental. But one thing they both have left out is the spirit world.

In the Native American Genesis the highest god WAKANTANKA doesn't appear on the scene at all. He stays in the background. On the next lower level of consciousness live the deathless ghosts and demons. They are not bound to space and time, but are considered a creative and created part of the whole. The connection between this level and the physical is somewhat irrational and not causal for example the wind god Okaga and the star peoples daughter Whope do not procreate human children but rather represent their timeless soul. The first people leave their cave (symbolizing a prenatal room) for the earth, attracted by the promise of meat and clothing. Is the genesis a process in which spirit beings become more and more dense and material? In any case it is a mysterious story in spite of all the familiar human qualities applied to the heroes.

The Blue Chip Orchestra chose some of these archetypes as a guide for a musical journey through the spirit realm. Authentic Native Indian chants, flutes, rattles, drums and nature sounds combine creatively with electronic sounds. The effect is that modern listeners can experience the inclusive consciousness of the shaman. The earthly tones and sounds blur, echoing in a surreal space, as sounds from beyond and beneath the earth blend into a virtual psychedelic experience.

The wall between this and the other world becomes elusive and partly disappears. Bognermayr's and Zuschrader's compositions have an atmospheric density that could trigger a shamanistic journey. Appropriately the Siberian overtone singing in the Iast piece is associated with the most ancient god of the rock, Inyan. It is said that 30,000 years ago the Native Americans came from central Siberia, crossing the Bering Strait into North America.

Those who are not into Shamanism and ancestral ghosts may focus on the meeting of archaic and electronic sounds or simply enjoy Blue Chip's artistry in aesthetic terms. It is an open concept. Playful fantasy and sonic mastery are guaranteed.

2-HOS-11089

Credits

Composed and Arranged by HUBERT BOGNERMAYR and HARALD ZUSCHRADER
Performed by the BLUE CHIP ORCHESTRA & RED SPIRIT ENSEMBLE
Produced by HuBERT BOGNERMAYR and HARALD ZUSCHRADER
at the Electronisches Försterhaus Studio and the Blue Chip Academy
Co-produced by ULRICH RüTZEL
All music © 1997 Erdenklang Musikverlag, subpublished in USA by WB Music Corp/ BMI
Licensed from Erdenklang Musikverlag, D-59889 Eslohe/Germany
Released outside North America as White River Red Spirit Erdenklang 70992
Sequence and editing STEPHEN HILL
Art Direction STEPHEN HILL
Design JEREMY HULETTE
Dancer and inlay photos BEN MARRA STUDIOS, Seattle, Washington. www.halcyon.com/benmarra
Title machine JOSEPH lACOBS
Special thanks to PETER REINGRUBER