А.И.Жихарев

Alexander Zhikharev was born in 1951 in the village Khoroshevo, which is now the Moscow region Khoroshevo-Mnevniki. after he got out of the army, he started working at the factory VILS [All-Union Institute of Light Alloys] & there poured his first bell. down the road, Alexander served as a bell ringer in the Kremlin & the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, researching manyyears to realize a way to replicate the bells dreamy resonances. In 1988, he found a form that is comparable in sound to the traditional bells and decided to call it 'Hammer Icon' or bila. They were flat, bronze & brass plaques, varying in size & weight, which emitted a surprisingly beautiful tone, quite unlike anything that sounds. Alexander is an exceptional man & extremely talented. He created this instrument, the musique on the flat bells or bilah, & refers to them as a sacred tool. In the early centuries of Christianity in the Roman Empire, alarm clappers fashioned from a wooden or metal boards & struck with hammers, were utilized to convene the people to prayer. This tradition is entrenched in Eastern Orthodoxy. The beauty of this musique is extraordinary & the emotional impact overwhelmingly breathtaking. This is not a simple bell-ringing, which we also love, but the sounds are stretched for a very long duration, sad & poignantly penetrating the soul. The flat bells are now cast in Italy, and they sound in many European countries. They can be heard in the theater Nemirovich-Danchenko, the Mariinsky & more than 150 other churches. In Moscow alone the Zhiharevskie bell are in 30 churches. But Alexander loves the sound of his bells in the small rural churches, where the singing bronze tones carry far into the countryside. In 1991, he patented his invention in Russia but did not have enough money for an international patent, so many use his invention for free, ignorant of who created this unique musical instrument. Zhikharev works on naked enthusiasm alone & has not received any formal recognition, though many consider his art to be a national treasure. He now plays with his ensemble every sunday at 3pm at the Kolomna national park in Moscow. check him out if you're over there. these 12 tracks were recorded without rehearsal, second takes or overdubs of any kind. owl the melodies were spontaneously improvised musical forms & occurred directly during the recording of 12 October 2002 at the church of the Assumption museum/reserve in Kolomna. Taken from: http://holywarbles.blogspot.com/2010/09/alexander-i-zhikharev-singing-bronze.html Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.