Release!: All Strings Considered

Michael Masley invented “bowhammers” which is his own technique for playing the hammered dulcimer enabling him to pluck, bow and strike the strings simultaneously. Attached to four fingers on each hand, they are similar in shape to traditional hammered dulcimer hammers, except the striking surface is covered with horsehair, like miniature violin bows. They produce bell-like tones when used to strike the strings and violin-like tones when used to bow the strings. Michael also uses thumb-picks, which create the ãpluckedä string tones.

He has recorded with artists as diverse as Ry Cooder, Butch Vig, Tom Waits and Zakir Hussain and is included in “Bakers Biographical Dictionary of Musicians -8th edition”. Jamie Janover has been playing the drums since an early age, and so has developed his own unique style of playing the hammered dulcimer based on his percussive techniques. He uses custom double-sided wood hammers for a staccato attack except on one track where he too uses the ãMichael Masley styleä bowhammers, for a bowhammer dulcimer duet (the first ever recorded). Both Jamie and Michael play custom extended range, fully chromatic instruments with dual damper pedal systems.The combination of their diverse and unique techniques reaches far into new realms of the timbral universe, from cascading symphonies of sound to spacious ethereal ambiance.

The music has an intuitive flow that helps the listener to travel to new realms through sound. “All Strings Considered” was recorded at 24 bit resolution, 48K sample rate. It was mastered using HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital), which encodes 20 bit resolution into regular 16 bit CDs. If you play All Strings Considered on a CD player equipped with the HDCD chip, it will play back with a 20 bit-depth resolution, otherwise this CD plays back on all normal CD players at 16 bits with enhanced clarity. This exceptionally clear recording captures all the nuances of the original sessions and highly recommended listening.