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Andreas Vollenwweider VibeZ

A Swiss harpist who rebuilt the instrument to suit himself, won a Grammy, and made records with Bobby McFerrin, Milton Nascimento and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Fifteen tracks of Andreas Vollenweider.

The man who electrified the harp

Andreas Vollenweider was born in Thalwil, Switzerland in 1953, the son of an organist and composer and a painter. He found the traditional concert harp limiting for what he wanted to do and built his own electroacoustic version — modified, amplified, and capable of textures the acoustic instrument cannot produce.

His 1984 album Down to the Moon won a Grammy in 1987, and he became one of the defining figures of what got filed as new age — a label he has never much liked and which undersells the music. The New York Times described his style as swirling atmospheric music evoking nature, magic and fairy tales, which is closer.

He is also a committed pacifist and environmentalist who has worked with Greenpeace and Amnesty International, and his compositions have been used in research into neural development in premature infants.

What to listen for

The collaborations are extraordinary and are the fastest route in. "Capriccio" with Bobby McFerrin pairs two musicians who both reinvented their instruments — McFerrin's instrument being his own voice.

"Cor do Amor" features Milton Nascimento, one of the greatest voices Brazil has produced. "Bhambororo!" features Joseph Shabalala and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the South African isicathamiya group.

"Mountain Song" with Djivan Gasparyan is the most affecting thing here. Gasparyan played the Armenian duduk, a double-reed apricot-wood pipe with one of the most mournful sounds in any tradition, and his work reaches back through centuries of Armenian music.

"Morning Poem" with Galician piper Carlos Núñez and "World Inside a Grain of Sand" with Prem Joshua continue the pattern.

"Behind the Gardens, Behind the Wall, Under the Tree..." is the signature early piece and the best demonstration of what the modified harp actually does.

Go deeper

Caverna Magica (1982), White Winds (1984) and Down to the Moon are the three albums.

For the collaborators: Djivan Gasparyan's I Will Not Be Sad in This World is one of the most beautiful records ever made. Ladysmith Black Mambazo's Shaka Zulu, produced by Paul Simon, is the entry point there. Milton Nascimento's Clube da Esquina is a masterpiece.

And for the harp beyond the classical repertoire: Alice Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby and Brandee Younger are three players who took the instrument somewhere else entirely.

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