Mytha

Mytha: How It All Started

by Chris May
August 10, 2007

Extraordinary is an over-used word, but it applies to this album, and then some. The music is made almost entirely by Swiss alphorns, heavy wooden horns ten-to-twelve feet long, straight except for their bulbous curved bells, which rest on the ground, the player standing at the business end, gripping the instrument's neck with both hands and, one imagines, bringing new meaning to the word “blowhard." Alphorns look cumbersome and lumpen on an industrial scale, and it is hard to imagine ...

Hans Kennel Mytha "How It All Started" (Hatology 648)

Source: All About Jazz
July 3, 2007

Hans Kennel Mytha: How It All Started Alphorn Quartet & Orchestra Hatology 648 (remastered, compilation of 2 out of print hatART CDs)

Mytha in this sense attempted the opposite of a reconstruction of Alpine roots. The energy of the music of this (at times extended) alphorn quartet hasn't diminished since its first CD was released in 1991.

Hans Kennel is a leading expert on folk tradition, in particular on that of Central Switzerland. His interest, however, ...
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