Andreas Vollenweider - Treasures of the Archives – Passage to Promise
🎵Treasures of the Archives – Part 13:
Memories of
✨“Passage to Promise“ | Montreux Jazz Festival 2011✨
"A special song with a special story, performed by Andreas Vollenweider & Friends and three friends from South Africa: Vuyo Tsuma, Vuzi Nlapo, and Loyso Mapamela.
It was part of the anniversary concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2011
In 1992, the album Book of Roses was created.
As usual, I used the early morning hours to let new music emerge.
This has always been my preferred state for creative work, somewhere between dreaming and waking.
Playing freely, a music suddenly appeared that strongly reminded me of South Africa.
And with surprising clarity, I thought of the people there and the difficult times that they are going through.
It was already becoming clear that the days of apartheid were numbered, but the regime was resisting its end with even greater brutality.
The reports were shocking, and the hope was high that change would come soon.
But there was also the fear that such a change might be accompanied by terrible bloodshed.
While playing the harp, I reflected on what it might take to prevent this bloodshed.
The Black population, who had built up an understandable anger over decades, would need to promise one another that they would - under all circumstances - strive for a non-violent transition.
But it would have to be a special kind of promise—like the kind one makes to a child.
Promises made to a child MUST be kept, no matter what.
And so a song emerged, still without a title, but I knew that I wanted to invite the vocal group Ladysmith Mombasa to the studio for it.
So I made a demo and wrote down my thoughts so that the group around Joseph Shabalala could create the lyrics.
I put the demo cassette and the note with the song idea into an envelope that I planned to send with a courier to South Africa.
But suddenly I realized that the music actually already should contain my thoughts, and that the note wasn’t needed.
So I took it out again and sent only the music with a greeting.
A few weeks later, we all met in the studio in Switzerland.
It all naturally came together very fast.
After just 2–3 takes, we were satisfied and listened to the music in the control room.
The group was, of course, singing in the Zulu language.
So I asked Joseph about the meaning of the words…
I think you know what’s coming: the words reflected my thoughts—more accurate than my note could have ever been—and the name of the song was ‚Passage to Promise‘.
Still any doubt that music is communication?“ – Andreas