The Bottom Line: Outstanding for background music, meditation, massage, relaxation. This truly supports peace through music, individually and collectively.
Saxguy's Full Review: Tao of Peace by Dean Evenson/Li Xiangting
Dean Evenson is a new age flautist, who has developed a successful musical career over 20-plus years in the new age/world music genre. The company mission statement is as follows:
Peace Through Music: Soundings of the Planet has been spreading Peace Through Music since 1979. Our music and videos are created for enjoyment, as tools for health and healing, and as inspiration towards unconditional love of humankind and nature. Through our production, we hope to move people to positive action, leading to both personal growth and environmental consciousness.
He has done so by spreading the Peace through Music message far and wide through tours and also developing a successful company to distribute his CDs and those of others. And then, there are the CDs. A search of the Soundings of the Planet web site, www.peacethroughmusic.com identified 34 CD on which Dean plays his flute and other instruments, out of 55 total CDs.
I have several CDs featuring him, and the thing that strikes me is that they are all DIFFERENT. Whether playing with a strong percussion flavor, as in his wonderful Ascension to Tibet CD, or with Native American flautists, or pianists or others, he is able to blend in and help provide wonderfully peaceful music. His flute style is laid back and flowing, with nice use of range and pentatonic scales, among other techniques. His gift of versatility is in attitude – a willingness to jam, if you will, with lots of like-minded musicians in advancing his cause.
This makes Dean, like many musicians before him a musical seeker, willing to embrace many, many experiences to explore self expression, creativity and the Creator, through sound. I witnessed this is a workshop he led in my area last summer and it was quite meaningful for me.
This very peaceful CD is different, in that Dean is joined by Li Xiangting, playing the Guqin (described as a Chinese zither) and the Xiao (vertical bamboo flute). Other collaborating musicians include his wife, Dudley, on handharp and tamboura, an ancient stringed instrument from India, Phil Heaven on viola, Brian Cisneros on very understated percussion, and Jason Darling on chimes and bells. Dean Evenson is also credited on keyboard. There are nine cuts, 61 minutes total.
Li Xiangting, according to the notes, is a world renowned master on the Guqin and one of the few people in the world able to improvise on the instrument.
There are nine cuts here, meditations, if you will, each specifically intended to reflect a mood. This music has to be improvised, within separate frameworks for each cut. There is no composer credit listed anywhere on the album. The cuts are generally at relatively slow, but shifting tempos. Many sections meander without much tempo, but the musicians are clearly interacting with each other. There are a couple of cuts with more defined tempos. As you might expect with Asian instruments involved, there is heavy use of the pentatonic scale as well as minor scales. The flutes and the Gugin are the most prominent melodic voices, but the viola, tamboura and handharp all have their moments in the mix.
As is the case with the recent Soundings CDs, the music is infused with the Earth Resonance Frequency of 7.8 cycles per second. This natural resonant frequency of the earth’s atmospheric cavity supports relaxation and meditation and creates a receptivity to healing. It is the same frequency that the brain emits in the Alpha state and thus helps to entrain the brainwaves to go into the Alpha state.”
This music is indeed quite peaceful. It’s great for the office. At my day job, my work and my cubicle are always in need of a peaceful balance. Having this and similar music playing softly helps me create the welcoming environment I want for my associates and others who visit. This music is ideal for meditation or massage. As is the case with most of the music I have heard from Dean, I recommend it highly.
This CD is special for me as I bought it and had it signed by the Evensons at their inspiring workshop.
Cut list:
Snow in Woods Poem
Path Through the Forest
Full Apple tree
Buds on Trees in Springtime
Stillness at Midnight
Grass Reflecting on Pond
Green Lake in the Woods
Slow Samba
Green Quiet Mountain
Thanks for reading. God bless!
You might be interested in some of my other reviews:
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