duende

Few didgeridoos stir the energies in the house of Duende Didgeridoo so much and then disappear so quickly as Zmayek. Zmayek was intended to be done as Moytze II, only with several changes. Firstly, harder wood was chosen so it can reach higher into frequencies of presence. Secondly, whole bore was made bigger, so there is more bass and sub bass, but playability is slightly more challenging than in Moytze.

You could meet Zmayek for the first time in “Era of Presence” ,an article that symbolizes and explains what is actual in the Duende Didgeridoo Sound Development Department. What does the graph (in the article) that goes high up in the high frequencies tell us about the sound? Sound is full of *sparks*, a feeling of bursting before every pulse. Another component of this quality is great definition. As mentioned, the total volume of instrument has grown compared to Moytze. Therefore its bass has grown and the sustain has grown. As a little side effect we got a tiny dip around 250Hz. Can you hear it? But Zmayek has proved its value on stage. I (Du) played it only once in a concert in England. It changed my black didgeridoo that replaced the original white C, with which everything started. I played “Lake of Awareness” on Zmayek, and I couldn’t believe what difference it made to other instruments. When I first started to play “Iglica III” people used to ask me after the concert “what was that?”, and this time I got the same question. But this time it was referring to Zmayek even though Iglica III was on stage. After the concert people wanted to buy the album which contained the song played on the “middle didgeridoo”, which was Zmayek. If I hadn’t sold Zmayek before the concert, it would be impossible to part with it after the concert. For me this was a good school what practical value means.

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Playability-wise Zmayek is similar to Moytze or Prodormo. Feeling is a bit more open. It asks for more air to sound full. This is from my point of view an insignificant change, as it does not ask nearly the amount of air as Oldhar or some 5 meter long didgeridoos. But I can imagine that if this is the only didgeridoo of this size you possess, smaller shape of Moytze could be more appealing. At least in the beginning. So in this term “Zmayek” is a bit lazy. It can do a lot, but you really have to ask with your breath and power to get the full value of this didgeridoo. We could call this property Inert Intensity.

Appearance-wise Zmayek is a simply shaped didgeridoo with some intricate carving. The bell of the didgeridoo has inlaying made of Lava. It represents a pagan temple, empty of objects, out of which a Dragon flies out.The body of the dragon is made in Lava (from Etna vulcano) and Fuchsite stone. Wings are carved out and stained. The scorched breath is a natural “defect” of the wood. The red mouthpiece is made out of an old Bluegum knot. So it is maybe of the same hardness as Ironbark. It replaced the old mouthpiece as I wanted half a millimeter smaller mouthpiece, the length of the didgeridoo was never changed.

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I would recommend somebody to make didgeridoo or to buy didgeridoo like Zmayek if they want to reach higher level of details in their complex articulation system, if they want to “come out” more in the mix, or if they enjoy a balanced C didgeridoo with very high presence factor.

Zmayek was a very labour intensive didgeridoo to make. I had to chisel it really slowly and carefully as wood was extremely hard (ironbark with knots) and twisted. The outside I peeled of very slowly by Japanese hand plane. I was unsure how thick I wanted it to be so I meditated upon it. The final result really presented to me something I was searching for, and also gave me a lot of inspiration to continue this way. I hope it inspires you too in your own way that you are going, roaming…

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