Bold as Light

Two transverse bamboo instruments, the Laotian raj naplaim and the Japanese nohkan, are this album’s binary star. The stories of both feel written in the sky, as fleeting as a cloud’s signature. As is often the case in the music of Stephan Micus, titles like “Rain” and “Spring Dance” are more suggestive than explicit. The clearest shadows come in the form of “Autumn Dance,” a lilting nohkan solo falling like a leaf from the “Golden Ginkgo Tree” that follows. Dedicated to master teacher and maker Kono Gyokusui (1930–2008), this is one of the most enchanting journeys Micus has ever documented.