Timothy Archambault - Onimikìg (2024)

Timothy Archambault's second album of unaccompanied Indigenous flute music for Stephen O'Malley's Ideologic Organ label is inspired by brontomancy (divination by thunder), mapping extended flute techniques to different thunder claps. On the opening track, the only one on 'Omimikìg' not to feature the flute, Archambault shakes a necklace made from various animal bones given to him by Algonquin Elder Ajawajawesi. This sets the scene - or focuses the attention - before the celebrated instrumentalist and composer shows off his technique. After his first album reworked Anishinaabeg ritual music used for divining, this time he concentrates the process on capturing the sonic characteristics of the natural world, replicating booming weather sounds with his traditional flute. To the Algonquin, the flute (or Pibigwan), is the essence of the wind itself, and unlike other tribal nations who used the instrument for courtship, the Algonquin attempted to harmonize with or mimic the sounds around them. Archambault approximates a cloud to ground lightning strike on 'CG I' and 'CG II', blowing forcefully to create multi-phonic oscillations that don't exactly sound like thunder, but the wind and bluster the might surround it. The pieces repeat the technique, but vary the interruptions: on 'Claps', Archambault overblows his flute until it bellows dissonant, high-pitched squeals, and on 'Peals', plays fast trills that counteract the central warble. The three 'Rumbles' tracks are most immersing, using harsh dynamics to reproduce the anxiety of distant thunder, and on the closing track, Archambault uses eerie negative space to memorialize Indigenous children.

Tracklist:
1-1. Timothy Archambault - * (01:30)
1-2. Timothy Archambault - CG I (02:29)
1-3. Timothy Archambault - CG II (03:48)
1-4. Timothy Archambault - Claps (03:57)
1-5. Timothy Archambault - Inversions (02:39)
1-6. Timothy Archambault - Peals (04:35)
1-7. Timothy Archambault - Rolls (03:47)
1-8. Timothy Archambault - Rumbles I (04:53)
1-9. Timothy Archambault - Rumbles II (04:04)
1-10. Timothy Archambault - Rumbles III (03:40)
1-11. Timothy Archambault - Din Of Silence for The Indigenous Children (02:17)