A solo-piece in seven parts for recorder, (soprano, alto,sopranino and tenor), based on the book The Conference of the Birds (Mantiq-al tair) by the persan poet Farid Ud-Din Attar (around 1120-1220).

The poem starts with the wise Hoopoe, "the leader of the high pathes and the deep valleys", addressing a gathering of all the birds of the world, urging them to start the spiritual journey of Life, despite of its difficultes and challenges, to reach for their king, the Simorgh. The journey takes the birds through the seven valleys -of search, love, insight, independence/detachment, unity, perplexity and finally the valley of exhaustion. At the end of the quest, the birds find that Simorgh has been with them throughout the journey. The King they sought was non other than themselves.

In Les sept vallées the music follows a journey of initiation. Different instrumental and musical technics are introduced step by step through the first four parts in order to meet and confrontate each other more developed and free in the three last parts.The piece was written for and in collaboration with the recorderplayer Kerstin Frödin.

Madeleine Isaksson