Louise Landes Levi - Ikiru Or The Wanderer (2018)

We welcome Louise Landes Levi to the Oaken Palace Records family and invite you to join her on a musical journey through the life and fate of the Monarch butterfly. IKIRU, which is Japanese for “to grow”, starts with “Butterfly Graveyard”, a musical assessment of the current state of the Monarch butterfly, whose population has declined by over 80% over the past 20 years. On “Butterfly Brain”, this worrying development is contrasted with the bravery and wonder of the species, its transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly, which then travels thousands of miles on its journeys from the US to Mexico.

Louise is a founding member of Daniel Moore’s Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company, the first fusion orchestra in the USA – fellow players included Terry Riley & Angus Macleise. Louise then trained with the Indian masters Pandit Ram Narayan and Ustad Abdul Majid Khan on sarangi, and with Ali Akbar Khan and his sister, Annapurna Devi. She also studied with La Monte Young in NYC, where she monitored the Dream House, Young’s & Zazeela’s musical installation. Despite this vast musical experience, she has released very few solo recordings, so we feel especially honoured that she has agreed to contribute to our project.

On this release, Louise is joined by Bart De Paepe and Timo van Luijk, who also recorded and mixed the album.