New Age Music World

Archive for April, 2010

Solo instrumental albums are a natural source of personalized music, so when two reputable soloists merge their singular talents, an alliance from soloists to duettists is an even more valuable source of personified music for everyone.

Devin Rice & Erin Aas are seasoned musicians already recognized by their proficient styles as individual artists. Now they emerge as a team that write and perform original piano with guitar, and finger styled guitar duet compositions with hand selected artists adding polished accompaniments on their new release titled Arrival.

Residing in the state of Washington, Devin and Erin traveled to the Imaginary Road Studios in rural Vermont to enlist the expertise of GRAMMY® Award-winning artist Will Ackerman. The level of quality with the album’s production retraces their visit to a highly specialized destination.

Arrival is an album where Devin plays piano and guitar along with Erin, showcasing their 15 song compilation that is adventuresome and symmetrical from the first song to the last. After meeting for the first time several years ago, I felt their earlier mainstay as professional soloists has been doubled and enhanced using simple math, along with their broad variance in individual styles.

Devin Rice and Erin Aas, have selected skilled team of artists, along with GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Will Ackerman, to emerge as a fortified musical team. By virtue of each artist’s specialized skills, they have attained an award-winning strategy with Arrivial.

Thyn Ayre is the crisp beginning song that sounds like a down to earth journey put to sheet music, like Procession, where a wonderful just right feel becomes the standard atmosphere. These folk styled narratives flourish during the piano and guitar duets set in a moderate tempo like most of the 15 songs.

Borderline is a breezy guitar duet by Erin and Devin, while their Tribute to Robert Frost expresses a more stately approach that includes percussion rhythms backing majestic piano melodies with subtler acoustic guitar highlights.

Lively acoustic guitar and percussion rhythms are heard on the memorable song Nevada, while Something About A Harbor has piano lead in for guitar, with rich melodic tones showing depth in a natural way. 

Perdido En Granada, Lullaby For Now & For JB are gentle and more introspective songs with English horn and cello support that compliment the pleasing atmosphere.

Whiskey In The Watertower is a spirited melody, and nicely coordinated guitar duet that features a wonderful guitar solo performed by Will Ackerman.

This song resembles Pulborough Spring by taking an up-tempo direction from the primarily moderate paced piano and guitar duets with instrumentals.

Rich cello harmonies are the scenic backdrop in songs, Morning With Annie, Southern Breeze, & Stars of Winter, with the latter song taking an adventurous free flight expression during the melody and refrains that gently lands with guitar, cello, and piano uniting in an ensemble.

Although solo albums are a mainstay and pleasing source of enjoyment, Arrival is a nice departure from singular solo albums given the enriching instrumentals and contrasting styles of the two principal soloists.  This departure notably doubles the fine harmonic value for the listener, along with Devin and Erin who have likewise doubled their musical achievements together as a team, and as individuals.

Additional artists are Derrick Jordan on djembe with Eugene Friesen and Traci Hoveskeland giving cello performances on several tracks. Jill Haley lends her talents on English horn and Will Ackerman plays guitar on the final song.

Visit devinriceanderinaas.com to sample or purchase, and at their CDBaby.com page. Read their biography page with how it all began. Visit the Imaginary Road Studios of williamackerman.com. Big Stock Photo copyright – MelMcNaughton.

David Wahler was a relatively new name in the New Age music industry a year ago, only to become a quickly rising star by his first album’s success, and the direction he took. David did in fact win an album award for his first album receiving the Best New Artist Award at ZMR in 2009. The initial reactions to his second album A Star Danced looks just as promising.

David Wahler’s Antiquus album officially released June 1 2009, has some unique qualities not heard in projects from musicians established before him. With this goal in mind David Wahler has managed to produce a debut album that appears to stand alone in personal style and form, creating a model as an artisan would create a grand sculpture adorned with touches of gold, and crafted entirely out of sound.

NewAgeMusicWorld.com & NewAgeMusic.nu have written much about David these past months. Today we are excited to present our visitors an informal interview with David Wahler and New Age Music World interview host John Olsen.

Interview with David Wahler;

John Olsen : Thank You for allowing us this interview and congratulations on your recent win for Best New Artist of the Year in the March ZMR music awards. It was welcomed news to B.T. Fasmer and I when we heard of your recent win and recognition by the Best New Artist award. You are also a recipient of our own NewAgeMusic.nu Best Albums of 2009 awards prior to your second award, so you have been in the music news quite a bit recently, now recognized and firmly established as a highly regarded composing musician.

You must still be pretty excited about receiving high recognition as an artist following your debut album. I am just wondering, did you aim high and set out to achieve this high level of success as a new artist, or did everything just fall right into place while composing Antiquus?

David Wahler : Thanks John for your congratulations. You and B.T. Fasmer have been great supporters since the release of ANTIQUUS. I really appreciate that. The Best New Artist Award was a wonderful surprise, capping off some ‘best of’ lists and several favorable reviews. I did aim high with my first album, as I am aware of all the superb artists who are creating in this genre right now. Putting together ANTIQUUS, however, did seem to flow rather easily, almost like writing a song that ‘releases’ almost effortlessly as opposed to one that one labors over for days and days! The music, concept, titles and art came together fairly quickly and with very little hesitation.

John Olsen : After writing reviews for both Antiquus & A Star Danced, I honestly felt you were poised for much recognition from the very beginning like many others. After final completion of Antiquus, did you feel confident you had a winning first album and have high expectations yourself, or did you have some reservations about the reception of your first album?

David Wahler : My co-producer and partner, Rick Stevens, and I had no idea how the album would be received. I don’t know if any artist knows how their music is going to resonate with their listeners. I just heard an interview with David Arkenstone where he said that he still has second thoughts and reservations when he releases a new album….. so there you go, and from a great artist with many years of proven success. It’s one of the ‘great unknowns’ I guess, that I will always be burdened with!

John Olsen : These reservations among great musicians could be universal then I suppose. David your early success as a musician is quite impressive, and your formal educational studies in music are equally impressive. Would you describe your formal music and educational achievements for our readers?

David Wahler : I was a ‘piano kid’ in my little farm town of Belvidere, Illinois growing up. My first piano teacher, Nellie Canfield, was almost 90, and instilled in me a love of classical music. I remember her driving three of her students (including me!) on a cold winter night to hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra play a concert of Ravel, including the Piano Concerto in G and the beautiful Daphnes and Chloe Suite. I was 9 years old and had never heard a live musical concert. You can just imagine what an impression that made on a young musical kid’s mind!

From there I dedicated myself to learning the piano. I attended Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin as a piano major. After a couple years there I felt the tug of the big city and I transferred to Mannes College of Music in New York City. My teacher, Mme. Olga Stroumillo, was a great friend of Vladimir Horowitz from their youth in Russia. She introduced me to the great music of the world, and indeed, the great musicians and pianists, from Alicia DeLarocha to Nadia Reisenberg.

I began playing for vocalists as a professional accompanist in debut recitals. It was there that I learned the song or ‘leider’ repertoire and gained a real appreciation for the melody. I gravitated to the theatre world in New York and became Musical Director in productions off Broadway. After a couple decades of non-music, making a living in the corporate world, I decided that I wanted to learn to produce my own music. I enrolled in Berklee College of Music’s Electronic Music Production program. I knew I had the music in me, but mastering the electronic part was the big question. I’m definitely not one of the ‘gear geeks’ I studied with at Berklee, but little by little I came to understand (and love) the technical side of what I do.

John Olsen : I am guessing your earlier music background has helped ease your transition to New Age/Electronic music. Did you find the change in genre style more challenging than you had imagined, and since the term New Age leaves room for interpretation, how would you best describe your unique compositions?

David Wahler : Really John, it’s been an easy transition from my classical music background to the music I produce now. With all the wonderful virtual instrumental sounds available now I’m able to incorporate many of the orchestral instruments into my music, from flutes to oboe, harp, strings and on and on. I also love to design new synthesized sounds to compliment these traditional elements. Yes, the term New Age conjures up different interpretations with people and it covers such a very wide spectrum so I refer to my music and genre as ‘Contemporary Electronic Instrumental’.

John Olsen : I am curious why you didn’t begin composing in more mainstream genre’s like Classical, Concert, or Jazz?

David Wahler : That’s an easy question to answer. Because I absolutely love the ‘world’ of New Age music. From George Winston and Will Ackerman to Vangelis and Tangerine Dream and Francis Lai.

Like in the early days I remember thinking to myself, “finally someone is writing music for me!” I also include wonderful film composers like Ennio Morricone and Hans Zimmer, and current New Age masters Paul Avgerinos, Jonn Serrie, Bernward Koch, Thierry David, and David Arkenstone as huge influences in my musical style.

John Olsen : When you first begin a new project, do you already have a structured outline of ideas in mind for what you plan to produce or do you primarily compose everything as you progress in the project?

David Wahler : For ANTIQUUS my focus was pretty clear that I wanted to produce an album dealing with ancient myths and distant places. I wanted the music to have a structured, yet dreamy and somewhat mysterious quality. So yes, that album was fairly structured from the beginning. A STAR DANCED was much a much different story. It consists of songs that have a very personal meaning to me, and I didn’t have a structured theme, other than the theme of everyone’s human experiences and how we each live under our ‘dancing star.’

John Olsen : Knowing the success and fine reception with Antiquus, and first initial reactions to A Star Danced have been very positive, do you feel A Star Danced will achieve the same highly regarded recognition, and do you feel your current release is of a higher caliber than Antiquus?

David Wahler : Wow, now that’s a tough question John! One of the pitfalls of early success is that everything is compared to the original. I can only hope that people listen to A STAR DANCED with an open mind and not compare the two. While I feel that I have a recognizable style to my writing, I do feel that the two albums are very different. I tried some new things with STAR like collaborating with guitarist Brent Gunter and writing in more of a cinematic style on some tracks, like ‘Peaseblossom’ and ‘Come Gentle Night’. I also added my arrangements of two classical pieces, Debussy’s ‘Reverie’ and Faure’s ‘Pie Jesu’. It was a challenge to revise these two pieces in a way that would honor the original compositions and yet add a new, fresh perspective. I believe that I was able to achieve those objectives.

John Olsen : Yes, I see your point and agree both of your albums have their individual merits, and happy that both are held in high regard. Your current album is dedicated to family members past and present and wondered if you don’t mind telling our readers a little about the life circumstances surrounding the dedication of A Star Danced?

David Wahler : ‘Missing You’ was written while my father was lying in his bed in a coma, dying of Parkinson’s disease. I thought how poignant to be missing him already before he had died. ‘Yvonne’ was written for a family member currently waging her battle against breast cancer. It is a tribute to her beautiful spirit and her unspoken ability to teach others the beauty of life. But I ultimately added these tracks to the album for everyone who has a ‘Yvonne’ in their lives, and everyone who is missing someone – parent, lover, friend, child, pet, relative- who is no longer in their life.

John Olsen : I believe everyone can see the significance to your tribute now. In my review of A Star Danced, I wrote much about the first song Quest and the final song Quest (Revisit) What was the sentiment or dedication behind this song?

David Wahler : ‘Quest’ was written for those people in the world who are facing challenges right now. And who doesn’t that include? We are living in perilous, difficult times. Most everyone is dealing with those obstacles that beat them down, obstacles that keep them from reaching their full potential. ‘Quest’ is an anthem, a herald that calls to everyone with setbacks (illness, money problems, death, injury, loss, etc.) to forge ahead and reclaim the spirit of joy and happiness that is our birthright.

John Olsen : Your song dedications are significant to you on a personal level, yet these circumstances remain pretty much universal to everyone. David, there are many hoping you will continue producing music. Do you have current plans for a future album, and what can you tell us about your next project?

David Wahler : I love writing in different styles; in fact, I have been working on a meditation/relaxation album that I would like to produce someday. And I love writing music about ancient and distant lands and worlds. ANTIQUUS was perhaps just a beginning……

John Olsen : I like to leave this last question open ended David since we can’t possibly cover everything in this single interview or even this final question. Is there anything you would like to bring up we haven’t talked about yet?

David Wahler : John, a year ago I was sitting and listening to some of my favorite music on Music Choice’s Soundscapes and thinking, “how wonderful it would be to have the world listening to my music, to perhaps touch someone with the sounds that come from my creations.” That was my personal ‘quest’, and now that wish has been fulfilled. I believe, that as Abraham says, ‘just ask and you will receive’. I urge everyone to ‘just ask’.

John Olsen : Thank You again for leaving us with your insightful words and allowing us this interview David. It’s clear that B.T. Fasmer and I both enjoy your music here at NewAgeMusicWorld.Com & NewAgeMusic.nu. We plan on writing even more about you to present to our readers, so let’s keep in touch. We wish you and your family the very best.

David Wahler : Thanks again John and B.T. for your support of my music. And, I’d like to thank my new found fans and your readers, and those fellow artists, broadcasters, reviewers, and industry insiders in the New Age community who have reached out so warmly to me in the past year!

We invite you to visit davidwahler.com to sample / purchase or his CDBaby.com page. You may read reviews and news about his recent awards on our page dedicated to David Wahler. Photos courtesy davidwahler.com & Bigstockphoto.com.

David Wahler first began conducting his New Age Electronic music just recently, where his time signature expertly directed a unique phrasing in tempo, dynamics, and articulation, leading to a Best New Artist award of praise during the final reception at the end of his first orchestration.

NewAgeMusic.nu had recognized the first release from David Wahler by our Best Albums of 2009 awards just prior to his Best New Artist award from ZMR, so this does reflect 2 awards that are warranted and we are glad to see David Wahler receive the recognition he deserves.

Antiquus is a greatly applauded 2009 album and truly a great debut that did earn much respect by the paramount success granted to such a relative newcomer in the music industry might have surprised many.

In our interview together David did say that winning was a wonderful surprise to him but had set his sights high to earn the top honors and achievements, aware of the superb musicians are creating great music within the genre.

Just like his first release A Star Danced is also welcoming a warm reception given the inherent dynamics of his well orchestrated compositions.  This album has the potential to succeed in recognition like his first so another fine album I would recommended to our visitors.  From our interview together David informed us of his plans for a future project, and many like myself are waiting in anticipation for his next album.

A Star Danced is David’s second album dedicated to his family circle past and present, boldly narrated by his unique direction in musical style.   The Quest video compiled by Aquariel Charm is just one of the many song videos that define the music of David Wahler perfectly.

Visit davidwahler.com where you can sample / purchase both albums and read his biography page.  You can also visit his CDBaby.com page then read our recent interview together and my reviews of Antiquus & A Star Danced on our page dedicated to David Wahler.

The song video Quest is a beautiful anthem giving insight into his album dedication and represents empowering inspiration to those facing challenging moments themselves.  The quote from my review titled Conducting New Age Music from A Star Danced and song video Quest is shown below.

Composed, performed, and arranged solely by David Wahler, this album represents a heartfelt narration surrounding his family circle past and present, where resolution of personal life challenges are reflected as a unique source of inspiration for his music’s identity, lovingly embraced by his close family heritage.

If you look close enough you can find beauty in all music genres. With some you have to look a little closer than others, but within every genre beautiful music does reside, regardless of your initial impression or what you first hear on the surface.

Likewise, many of our most popular genres greatly influence the atmosphere, tones, and rhythms of New Age subgenres to help create a perfect balance in modern music by becoming a liberating escape from more traditional forms of Ambient music.

Balligomingo is one artist title where Contemporary Instrumental, Alternative, and Ambient, reveals an effervescent intermingling with New Age. The album producers Garrett Schwarz on guitar and Vic Levak on keyboard, along with lead vocalist and songwriter Jody Quine, have enlisted guest vocalist Rebecca Ramone on several songs, to create a sensational new vision and exciting unification in ambience you are sure to find enticing.

Under An Endless Sky is the 2010 release by Balligomino via the Chrysalis Music Group. This current follow up to their critically lauded 2002, BMG / Windham Hill debut album, Beneath the Surface, is another album I was already familiar with years ago and still enjoy today.

The multinational band membership is based in Canada and the United States, so distances for members are miles apart and uniquely independent since each performer electronically relayed their unhurried contribution to the album’s construction, verses a studio mix. This approach has noticeably led to a uniform performance of quality from each member, with appreciable care given on each individual musical contribution.

Balligomingo is one artist title where Contemporary Instrumental, Alternative, and Ambient, reveals an effervescent intermingling with New Age. Their enchanting escape incorporates attractive female vocals, acoustic guitar melodies, and percussion structures that elevate beautiful yet non conforming ambient rhythms. Rhythms you will find fresh and energizing.

Under An Endless Sky features 12 songs with modern up tempo rhythms and pleasing vocals that easily provide a timely retreat from more traditional New Age renditions, and most importantly, Balligomingo consistently produces beautiful songs New Age and Contemporary Instrumental fans will easily embrace.

Showing a casual atmosphere with every song on the album, Spinning stands out as a modern representation, where guitar and keyboard ensure the surface reflections of light and color while backing alluring vocals contrasting the imagery of the mood with dreamy idealistic lyrics about endless possibilities.  I Just Tell Myself is an appealing and melodic song that outlines an intimate picture by the rose colored lyrics and resonating guitar rhythms with strong keyboard chords during refrains, like the deep synthesizer posturing in A Beautiful Day.

Under An Endless Sky ( Title Song ) Letting Go & New World rely on light and passionate vocals with nicely balanced instrumentals to nurture moderate tempos showing a partisan likeness towards the overall glowing attributes one will experience throughout this entire album. Over You illustrates a soulful groove rhythm by acoustic guitar that is soon personified by vocalized countermoves defining the relationship intimacy by lyrical viewpoint, while Goodbye retraces more progressive styled guitar runs.

Sunshine In Rain is a motivating up-tempo song with percussion making the early moves leading into strong guitar chords taking the song in an enthusiastic direction. Passionate vocals show a harmonic likeness to bright sunshine throughout the song verses, before keyboards ambient chords become the fading clouds while closing out the song.

Balligomingo relies much on enthralling and quality rich vocalists to display their picturesque musical surface, with deeper ambient imagery from instrumental and percussion displaying the pleasing atmospheric rhythms that brings everything together.

You might have noticed Balligomingo has a pretty album cover, but rest assured that the attraction does reside within the packaging. There you will encounter the true attributes of Under An Endless Sky, along with this striking Canadian and American group that also stands out as a natural beauty.

Additional writers on this album include, Michelle Lewis and Patrick Upton Jr. Additional acoustic guitar and piano include, Jerry Sintich, Geraldo Dominelli, and Zirque Bonner.

Visit balligomingo.com to sample / purchase then find out more about their performance tours, and their biography page.

Vicki Logan is a musician who not only creates great music, but every song she has produced over the years reflects her heart and true spirit within each piece.   Vicki is a New Age artist who incorporates Pop, Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, and other genre influences that blend into memorable works of music many like myself find inspirational.

Enlisting the help of Randy Gildersleeve, Andy LaCasse, Peter O’Gorman, Matt Fink, and others to produce built with pride award winning music, every album has a personal touch I am certain you will find inspiring too. 

The 4 albums that chronicle each advancing stage in her music career include, Chasing Dreams, Finding My Way, The Ride, & The Journey To The Places In My Soul, which is now listed in the Top 100 New Age Albums for radio play in 2009.

Vicki Logan is also a creative graphic designer and has been busy launching her new website lately, but plans are underway to produce another album before long, and many like myself are highly anticipating her next release.

If you have missed the chance to hear Vicki Logan’s music on Internet Radio, we encourage you to visit her brand new website VickiLogan.com to sample or purchase her music, and sample her current release The Journey To The Places In My Soul at CDBaby.com.  There are 4 album reviews I have written, and our interview together can be read when you visit my pages dedicated to Vicki Logan.

Here is an album review quote I wrote about Vicki’s inspiring music, and the song video below of Don’t Be Afraid, is just one of many classic songs you will find memorable. Photo Copyright Vicki Logan.

Vicki Logan is an excellent example of what can be achieved when a talented artist shares a part of themselves by putting their heart and spirit into the creation of their music.  Incorporating elements of New Age, Pop, Jazz, and R & B influences provides the listener a fresh perspective with each classic piece she produces.  After discovering the music of Vicki Logan, you will find yourself recalling her inspiring melodies over and over in your mind daily.      Blog Host – John P. Olsen

Its one occasion when musicians produce music at the local level, and another when top performing artists from around the globe unite in a music festival that reaches the attention of worldwide audiences and achieves a high level of acclaim.

Johannes Linstead is an Award Winning Canadian guitarist and multi instrumentalist proving his acclaimed talents once again by his current release. Showcasing his lively artisanship on Spanish guitar, Mistico becomes the well centered focal point and international meeting place for dedicated music professionals uniting from Canada, Spain, Cuba, Greece, Iran, and Venezuela.

Recently winning Best World Album & Best Instrumental Album – Acoustic in ZMR’s 2009 Awards, plus ranking #1 at eMusic.com’s World Music & Jazz / Blues charts, gives the few people not familiar with the quality of his work a little more insight.

Listing just the highlights of his music career, Johannes was recognized in the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards as Guitarist of the Year, had 4 Top Ten charting albums at Billboard, Best World Album JUNO Awards nomination, and 4 Best Album awards at NAR & NAV. With over 500,000 albums sold worldwide, the long list of awards and nominations in entirety reaches a length most artists strive to achieve in a lifetime.

Johannes Linstead has a musical style not easy to categorize since Contemporary, Latin, Flamingo, Mediterranean, and World are just some of the essential New Age influences that when synchronized with a vast array of percussion instruments, seamlessly integrate into stylish musical scores that could be more easily categorized using the word festive.

Mistico is the successful album that commands much respect, not only by the heart beating origins of another chart topping project by Johannes and his extraordinary Contemporary Latin guitar rhythms, but Mistico becomes an extravagant music festival with top international artists performing by his side.

The Happy Song ( Felicidad ) begins this rare international festival of 11 original songs with up-tempo flare, neatly tailored to the elevated atmosphere of the occasion while giving Johannes his first opportunity to sport the masterful guitar melodies for which he has become famous. The accordion composition smoothly introduces a heightened amount of ambience to the opening number with much fanfare, while groove rhythms in Rico ! move gracefully in counter beat with beautiful electric guitar runs, congas, and bongo drums to interlock in dramatic fashion.

Leisurely strides in Night Dance rely on a crisp Latin styled melody with moderate vocals to generate a nice distinction to a more casual Twilight, where the sheer beauty of guitar melodies lend themselves to a veiled feel of lively sophistication.  Otros Mundos embraces percussion claves, congas, bongo and timbale while playing rhythmic intermediary companion with guitar melodies expert runs in well defined chords.

All She is ( Ella Es ) brings a light breeziness into the storyline, while Coconut Girl outlines positive imagery of the spirited occasion on this festive album. Rhumba styled Santa Maria with accordion harmony extends a tantalizing impression of solidarity to the sunny and joyful affair. 

Durango brings the talents of many artists into the lively exotic mix, where dejembe, doumbek, and bongo percussions dispense the glitter, while guitar instrumentals and accordion intermezzos engrave the melodic sparkle. 1000 Veils conveys energetic rhythms and palmas ( hand clapping ) to make a striking contrast to violin’s and Spanish guitar’s well structured verses.

Mistico ( Title Song ) enters an extravagant linage of passion where violin and doumbek perpetuate the energetic tempo and warm festive atmosphere, uniting with resolute harmony while synchronizing to become positively dazzling.  Much like the territorial borders the world musicians in attendance encountered during the album’s production, Mistico crosses many borders itself, achieving an extravagant repertory for everyone who listens to this celebratory fiesta of music. Viva Mistico!

The global musicians uniting to form this international festival alongside Johannes Linstead include Anastasios Bigas, Frank Marcos Aular, Jalidan Ruiz, Jordan Abraham, Geoff Hlibka, Yosvani Castaneda, Sina Khosravi, and Laura Fernandez.

Visit johanneslinstead.com to sample / purchase or visit his Amazon.com pages here.

Picture copyright Big Stock Photo – Siart.  Album cover copyright Johannes Linstead.