Ancient
to the Future: Baird Hersey & Prana
by
Peter Aaron
On
hearing Baird hersey & Prana (a Sanskrit word meaning
breath or vital energy), it’s almost unbelievable that
the group’s music is made withjust the human voice.
Each member of the nine-voiced choir is a student of the style
of diphonic or overtone singing rooted in that of Mongolia
and the Himalayas, a mystical technique that permits the vocalist
to sing more than one octave simultaneously, often with a
parallel “whistling” tone floating above the core
notes. Haunting, hypnotic, and at once both ancient and futuristic,
the ensemble’s sound ascends from cave-like guttural
growls, crests and shimmers with astonishing beauty, and washes
over the listener in wave upon wave of balming bliss.
But
even though he’s known as an unshakeable pillar of calm,
Hersey, a devoted yoga practitioner and Prana’s founder
and leader, just might have a bit of a surprise for you: He
likes to rock out on occasion. “Oh, I listen to all
kinds of music,” says the reflective, shaven-headed
father of two. “I still like to put something loud on
the stereo sometimes and crank it up, sure.”
In fact, Hersey, 58, got his start by cranking it up as the
lead guitarist of East Coast hard rock band Swampgas, which
released an album on (quite prophetically) the Buddah label
in 1972. After Swampgas dissipated, Hersey enrolled in Vermont’s
Bennington College, where he studied instrumental performance
and composition. “It’s really ironic,” he
says. “Because before I was at Bennington I had attended
[Connecticut’s] Wesleyan University, but the program
there was focused on world music, which I wasn’t that
interested in back then. Now of course with Prana we’re
doing stuff that’s very much related to Tuvan and Tibetan
traditions.”
But
after college it would be some decades before Hersey would
return to studying ethnic styles..CONTINUE...
|
