Music Reviews
The following are excerpts taken from our Music Reviews.
Aotearoa: Nature Sounds of New Zealand
Aotearoa: Nature Sounds of New Zealand
(www.symbiosis-music.com, £9.95)
4/5
You can’t argue with Symbiosis here. They have indeed captured the nature sounds of New Zealand. The first three tracks are 30 crystal clear minutes of billy-cooing Bellbirds, Saddlebacks and Fantails, interrupted occasionally by a flutter of feathers, the rattle and thrum of…
Read More >> (article from Issue 102)
Deep Calm: Dr. Andrew Weil's Music for Self Healing
Deep Calm: Dr. Andrew Weil's Music for Self Healing
(www.soundstrue.com, $17.98)
3/5 (for the music only)
This CD is one of a series of ‘Music for Self-Healing’ with Andrew Weil MD's face and name on the sleeve aimed at inducing ‘deep calm’. The music is arranged and re-torqued by Joshua Leeds, an authority in the field of psychoacoustics which studies the effects of music and…
Read More >> (article from Issue 102)
Kundalini Meditation Music
Kundalini Meditation Music
(Sounds True, £11.69)
3/5
The aim of meditation is to uncouple the mind from the engine of everyday ritual to enter a mental state where time is no longer relevant. From the ancient times music has been used to enter this mindset and many CDs on the market that promise to get you beneath the waters of consciousness faster than a…
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Dartmoor Symphony
Dartmoor Symphony
By Nigel Shaw
(www.seventhwavemusic.co.uk CD/DVD £18)
3/5
Nigel Shaw has been recording and releasing music on his own Seventh Wave label for a number of years. Playing hand-carved flutes and other traditional instruments he has explored…
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Transglobal Underground – Run Devils and Demons: the best of
Transglobal Underground – Run Devils and Demons: the best of
www.myspace.com/tansglobalunderground
[four stars]
Anyone familiar with the global beats of the London based collective Transglobal Underground will be thrilled by this double disc set that includes favourites like Rude Buddha and Templehead. A timely reminder of what’s so great about the eclectic picking and choosing of these talented folk. Asian, Arabic and Afro rhythms mix with typically London dance, dub and breakbeats to create tracks that are modern…
Read More >> (article from Issue 98)
Bombay Dub Orchestra – 3 Cities
Bombay Dub Orchestra – 3 Cities
www.bombayduborchestra.com
[three stars]
The three cities in question are Mumbai, Chennai and London where a collaboration of up to 75 musicians – Indian and British – have come together to create an East-West fusion that is at times illuminating and surprising.
Fusions can sometimes be very uncomfortable things with one or the other tradition dominating but here Indian classical instruments are overlaid seamlessly with western beats to create new arrangements that are a true hybrid. You…
Read More >> (article from Issue 98)
Baka Beyond- Baka Beyond The Forest
Baka Beyond – Baka Beyond the Forest
www.1heart.org
[four stars]
This is so cheerful and upbeat that I defy anyone not be enchanted from the very first yodelling cry of the first track. Baka Beyond are the Baka Pygmies of the Cameroon rainforest along with Martin and Su Cradick. Their sound is a happy blend of traditional instruments, acoustic and bass guitar with the most entrancing vocals. The ‘yelli’ singing of women of the Baka, a yodelling wordless sound, is said to ensnare the spirits of the animals that the men go out to…
Read More >> (article from Issue 98)
Spiritual Healing – Deuter
Spiritual Healing – Deuter www.newearthrecords.com . A few issues back I gave a mention to a recent release by New Age stalwart Kitaro, whose music I gather has been much favoured over the years by the many friends of the late Indian guru, Osho (Rajneesh). Seemingly hot on its heels I now have on the CD player the latest release from Deuter, another highly respected new age artist who I encountered at a similar time in my life – ah, those halcyon ‘Orange‘ days (which had nothing to do with too much beta-carotene!). I just…
Read More >> (article from Issue 93)
Harmony – Sayama and Zen World – Thierry David (both Real Music)
Harmony – Sayama www.sayama.de and Zen World – Thierry David www.thierrydavid.com (both Real Music) It is often a bit of a mixed blessing when the New Age adopts a new sound (thank god that over-obsession with making farty noises down hollow antipodean tree-trunks has abated somewhat), and sadly here Sayama resorts to a sprinkling of oriental ‘pastichés’ (my made-up word for…
Read More >> (article from Issue 93)
Zarathustra – Sina Vodjani (Membran Music)
Zarathustra – Sina Vodjani (Membran Music) www.membran.net When I suggested to Christiane at Membran.net that I would be more than happy to receive new offerings from Germany to review, I wasn’t expecting what was soon to arrive on my doorstep. Zarathustra is an extraordinary package whichever way you look at it. Is it a book? Is it a CD? Is it a DVD? No, it’s an extraordinary multimedia experience! With the book’s text in both German and English, Sina Vodjani leads us on…
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Contemporary and Traditional Chinese Music – The Silk String Quartet (ARC Music)
Contemporary and Traditional Chinese Music – The Silk String Quartet (ARC Music) www.ukchinesemusic.com Members of this quartet are regular tutors at the Asian Music Circuit Summer School I attended last year, and having heard them play I just had to buy this marvellous CD! Here is traditional Chinese music played with a contemporary twist and stunning virtuosity. The pipa (4-stringed lute), guzheng (21-stringed zither), erhu (2-stringed fi ddle) and yang-qin (hammered dulcimer)…
Read More >> (article from Issue 93)
Early Morning Meditation
Having just returned to Findhorn after a six-week concert tour with his band The Waterboys, Mike Scott shares with us an amusing tale of mental relaxation...The Waterboys tour took me to Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Spain and the US. I’ve sung my songs to city slickers and rustic drunkards, whooping Americans, screaming Canucks and mad Mediterranean wildmen in the crazy hot night of Valencia. Along the way I pored over Woody Guthrie’s hand-written songbooks in New York with his daughter Nora, hung out in Seattle with my friend the spiritual…
Read More >> (article from Issue 92)
The Alchemist
An icon of popular culture and still working at the musical frontiers, Peter Gabriel continues to have the Midas touch wherever he lays his hands. Founder of the WOMAD music festivals,enthusiastic supporter of humanitarian projects and with a growing family to bring up, he is the most earthly of men. Kate Osborne uncovers a vibrant, creative and compassionate soul. Why is Kindred Spirit devoting a feature to a hugely…
Read More >> (article from Issue 92)
