Daniel Prandl Quartett

The Hero´s Journey - liner notes

Through all times, in any culture it was the myth that gave humans orientation, showing them, what could be a successful life. Ancient legends, religious writings and folk tales from all over the world tell in many different forms the one unique truth, regardless of their origin or time of creation.
It was Joseph Campbell, who started in the first half of the last century to search for a connecting item beyond the different narratives and developed the concept of the »monomyth«, published in his famous study „The Hero with a Thousand Faces“ (1949). The „Monomyth“-concept refers to the idea that all mythic narratives are variations of a universal great story and the metaphors found in diverse myths produce a consonance, one cantus firmus in the polyphony of truths. The basic structures, that Campbell explored, hidden behind different creative masks, appear everywhere, when you deal with »good stories«. You´ll find them not only in the big, sense making master narratives of high culture, but also in everyday and popular culture. We are always surrounded by these micro-narratives, even if we don´t consciously know about it. Furthermore Campbell's ideas have become very popular among writers, designers, in movies, marketing and psychology.

„The Hero´s Journey“ approaches the concepts of Joseph Campbell musically in a curious and most innovative way, transforming them into Jazz. Contemporary modern music. Improvisation. It´s a Song Cycle of twelve compositions, leading our hero and the listener out of the ordinary life into real adventure. Inner and outer resistance has to be overpowered until the final show-down is reached - and the hero returns with the one elixir that might heal the world.

Trusting in the subtle and powerful effects of music, which is able to speak directly to the listener, „The Hero´s Journey“ aims at Campbells goal to unlock some of the truths, which are hidden within the shapes of religion and myth. These are truths that are as relevant in life and storytelling as the laws of natural science are in the »real« world.