Journey with the Sun

by Jonathan WidranFor 20 years, new age wind player Paul Winter has headlined world-class audiovisual musical extravaganzas celebrating the summer and winter solstices at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Most of the contemplative nature of this worldbeat meets new age recording reflects the ambience of the early morning summer celebration, while two songs -- the intensely percussive, Middle Eastern-flavored "Caravan at Dawn" and the mystical "Yabu" -- come from the 1999 winter show that featured Mickey Hart playing RAMU, or Random Access Music Universe (i.e., an incredible array of electronic sounds). The unique spiritual power of the album derives from vocalist Arto Tuncboyacian, an Armenian whose African-sounding guttural vocals utter phrases in "vocables" from his own personal dialect; this is exotic scat singing at its most creative! The mystical "Broken Arm" shows the more heartfelt side of his vocals, and the interesting mood swings continue throughout. The joyous jig-like "Mountain Wedding" features the Uilleann pipes of Davy Spillane, and these pipes are used to more haunting effect on "Pas de Deux." "Singing to the Mountain" is a wistful, folksy tribute to Tuncboyacian's late brother, who was killed in a plane crash in Turkey.