CHOYING DROLMA AND STEVE TIBBETTS

Selwa (Six Degrees)

            Minnesota guitarist Steve Tibbetts has for 17 years pursued his passion for progressive, ambient, and world music in nonlinear fashion, similar to Robert Fripp, Brian Eno and Bill Frisell.  Selwa, Tibetan for “clarity,” marks his second effort backing Tibetan Buddhist nun Choying Drolma.  Respectful of the cultural basis behind the music he explores, Tibbetts takes special care to avoid fetishizing Drolma’s chanting style.

            Outspoken against gender inequality since childhood, Drolma chose nunhood as a means of escaping the patriarchal confines of marriage.  In Nepal, her home, she eventually founded a school where women have access to education, both spiritual and academic, on par with men.  Drolma’s candor in addressing Buddhism’s institutional sexism in Selwa’s liner notes provides refreshing counterpoint to the romanticism typical in the West and illustrates her revolutionary nature.

            It’s no surprise, then, that Drolma and Tibbetts stake their claim far from New Age cliché.  Tibbetts adds light touches of guitar, percussion, and ambience, and heavily affects Drolma’s voice at times so she sounds, by turns, like a ghost, an angel, an alien or an entire chorus of any of the above.  It may sound soothing on paper, but Selwa is far from an easy listen, and the pair deserve praise for turning this hurdle into the album’s biggest strength.  This austere music actually chills and abrades as much as it soothes, but skillful emotional restraint ensures a gripping experience filled ultimately with liberation and  security if you go halfway to meet Drolma and Tibbetts (who named their first album, Cho, for “Cutting”) on their own ground.  And when Drolma sings “may all achieve buddahood,” you know you’re in good hands.

- Saby Reyes-Kulkarni