Michael Brant DeMaria's second commercially released album, Siyotanka (following his first, The River), doubles as the score for a play of the same title that DeMaria wrote with Stephen C. Lott based on the Lakota legend of a young Native American warrior who goes on a journey of personal development and ends up with a flute. Each track depicts a scene in the story, and DeMaria details them in his liner notes. But the music, played on Native American flutes, synthesizers, and percussion, with some Native American chanting and nature sounds, can be appreciated without reference to the text. Like most program music, its relationship to what the composer intended it to be about specifically isn't really apparent -- or necessary -- to the listener. That listener is likely to find the music attractive and evocative, the flutes in particular serving both melodic and trance-inducing drone effects. The album can be used for meditative or background mood-setting purposes, although it also will reward close listening for itself.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo