The Song from the Shadows (Part I)

“Say to those that are broken-hearted

Do not lose your faith…

The Lord your God is strong

With His mighty love

When you call on His Name

He will come and save you

He will come and save you

Say to the weary one

Your God will surely come

He will come and save you…”

When the sadder offerings of life, the wretched dregs of loss, and trials begin arriving, so does the quiet, firm and soothing assurance the verses above offer.

The lyrics you read are from one of American worship leader Bob Fitts’ most beloved songs He Will Come and Save You (Album: Take My Healing of the Nations, 1999).

Normally, my artistic passion is in classical music. I am particular to instrumental guitar music, classical opera or orchestra. My cousin Ren Merry, now a guitar instructor in Colorado, planted in me a love for the genre when I was in school.

Only in my first year in college did I learn that Beethoven and Bach were not guitar players, nor were Schubert, Debussy or Vivaldi. That realization fueled what would become my eternal romance with classical guitar music. Nourishment also came from the likes of Robert de Visée to Mauro Giuliani, Scott Tennant to Andrew York.

The perfect times for the richer forms of music to work are usually the times when you hunger for answers. The ‘answers’ that I like to believe I look for, are not necessarily philosophic conjectures that form the possible reasons why, say, the conditions of humankind are the way they are.

It is not the hunger for clearer perspectives about the higher designs of values, history, or even the future. It is simply a hunger for the sake of it; contemplation motivated by sheer indulgence. Moods provoked by music do appear a clichéd pretext if you really ponder minutes over it.

Yet, I do know that when contemplation walks in – as it does so often to my nature when I am not masquerading to the demands of our sad, cosmetic society. That is when I find myself listening to classical music. It is as if untested ideas were making love with established rationales – but with the quiet suspicion of uncommitted lovers.

There is another facet to my artistic catharsis though. Lovelier, productive days generate positive emotional energies. Such are times when I find satiation for my hunger by more energetic forms of expression: Contemporary rock music is one such appeaser.

That's me, at my brother's old shanty in Dimapur. It's an old photo print. I was in Patkai Christian College then. My brother, Joel Ngullie, was also a guitar player in the college. My cousin Yanren Kikon (CEO of SkyGroup), also a Patkai alumnus, would turn out to be one of the college's best guitar talents during that time (I am told he was offered the job of instructor for the college's guitar section). The guitar in the image is an old Java, one of the first real guitars I played many years before I could afford one.

Where my love for classical music sprouted, there alongside had flowered another passion. However,it was an angrier, more resolute form of art this time – rock music.

I was in school too, when the musical tastes of my elder brother Sandemo Ngullie (Cartoonist and illustrator with The Morung Express) introduced me to classic rock and heavy metal bands in the form of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath.

All my biggest rock guitar heroes are from the original rock eras. Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Chet Atkins, Rick Emmet, Snowy White, Oz Fox, Bob Hartman, Joe Satriani, Kirk Hammet, Marty Friedman, John Petrucci et al. That was also when I found a piece of my heart in Christian music in the form of American Christian rock pioneers Bloodgood, Stryper, and Petra.

That's me and my first real guitar, about a year after joining the news media! Her name is July, an Ibanez RGDX. My friend Laimen Ozukum, who is a proficient guitarist, and I often played with photoprints for CD covers, artwork or impromptu recordings in his home studio. Although, I'd been writing since the age of 14-15 for various publications in India, I'd always believed I'd become a musician. I used to play with a few heavy metal bands before becoming a journalist, often doing shows in Dimapur and Kohima then. Today, my passion is reporting on policy and developmental matters, but music still offers me creative perspectives when pursuing political news content.   

The college from where I pursued my Bachelor's degree, Patkai Christian College, would buttress my newly found taste in the sub-genre Christian rock as well. The flirtation would lead my musical wanderings onto journeys that had no destination - only endless discoveries.

I have learnt a truth over the years: A truly musical person has no destination, only a journey of discovery. One such discovery that I made was in 2000 – the year I suffered my first, full-fledged measure of what our sad society calls a ‘breakdown’. I believe that two of what could have been my most productive years of youth were lost to it.

I would encounter the ungodly, ugly thing yet again, during the winter of 2007. Thankfully, the second encounter would be in a more merciful measure. In good time, in God’s time, I will tell you stories about the shadows.

For now, I will tell you stories about the light. One of the many tiny lights I found among the shadows. 

© 2014 Songs from The Shadows Al Ngullie © 2012 Al Ngullie