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Topic: Lawrence Blatt

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ONE CHANCE:
Her previous CD, A Place in the Sun, debuted at #2 in radio and was nominated for Best Instrumental Album - Piano at the NAR Lifestyle Music Awards 2006. With two earlier albums hitting #3 on the radio charts and airplay across the nation and worldwide, Ms. Sweeten is quickly becoming one of the most popular pianists around. In this, her 7th release in a decade, she attains yet a new level of performance and composition. Grey Sky and Bittersweet is produced by Grammy Winner and Windham Hill Records founder, Will Ackerman, at Imaginary Road Studios on Steinway Grand Piano, Model B.
BUY Grey Sky and Bittersweet
Amazon.com ReviewKitaro picks up the path of his sacred journey through Shikoku, an island that has 88 temples, each with its own distinct temple bells. The Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai, Volume 3, is the latest in a projected multi-disc series in which the Japanese keyboardist has been recording those bells and working them into the matrix of his music. Taking its name from Kukai, a Japanese monk and founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism in the 9th century, the series follows a path that gets more languid with each album. The synthesist has jettisoned most of the sappy strings that marred his previous journeys, opting for floating, ambient spaces centered around organic sounds. "Crystal Winds" might be the most carefully formed, albeit rhythm-free and melodically amorphous track Kitaro has composed in years. It builds from a floating array of Native American flute, zithers, Balinese gamelan, temple bells, and harmonic singing merging into filter-swept synthesizer before a brief santoor melody is teased out of it. It's not long before Kitaro tosses in electric-guitar leads on the grandiose sweep of "After the Rain," replete with his patented whooping Korg lead lines. If he'd left out the sampled choirs and strings, it might've risen above generic easy-listening new age, which is still preferable to "Winds Blow over the Hill," a thinly veiled lift from his own Silk Road that makes it sound like a score for a sanatorium. But Kitaro redeems himself with the last two tracks, a hypnotic jam with some uncharacteristically raving guitar over a sequencer ostinato called "Voice in Blue," and "Circle Dance," a ritualistic piece for bells, flute, and what sounds like metal mixing bowls. I kept looking into the kitchen to see if my wife was making something, but I liked the way it added three-dimensionality to the piece. With The Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai, Volume 3, Kitaro gives us hope that the trek might be worth continuing. --John Diliberto
CONSUMER INFORMATION | Other Albums by Kitaro
Carolynsouthworth.com | LISTEN to tracks at Amazon.com
THE MAKING OF "TRUE" VIDEO:
Review When Evening Falls, by Salvatori and Litchfield was quite relaxing and wonderful. I bought the CD When Evening Falls, to play in my fourth grade classroom during quiet times as background music. Very nice, very relaxing and inobtrusive. The students began asking for it to be played. After school I found myself playing it while grading, and other teachers wandering in to ask what CD that was. I have not found a CD by Tom Salvatori that I didn't like! - Reviewer: Denise Aiani --website posting
Tom Salvatori and Iris Litchfield (Artist), Salvatori - Litchfield (Composer), n/a (Conductor), Classical Guitar; Grand Piano and Cello (Orchestra), Tom Salvatori; Iris Litchfield; John Catchings (Performer)