Journeyscapes DJ Set: Stella Maris

An ethereal ambient winterscape featuring sacred female voices! 

TIME / ARTIST / TRACK / ALBUM
00:25 / Richard Souther / Vision (O Euchari In Leta Vita) / Vision
06:22 / Pilgrimage / Ceremony / 9 Songs of Ecstasy
09:40 / Daughters of St. Paul / Mary the Dawn / Stella Maris
13:05 / Mediaeval Baebes / Pater Noster / Prayers of the Rosary
17:14 / Richard Souther / Kyrie / Illumination
20:58 / VocaMe / O ignis Spiritus Paraclitus / Inspiration
25:02 / Sinfonye & Stevie Wishart / Bingen: Zuuenz / Hildegard
30:06 / Kim Cunio & Heather Lee / Caritas abundat / Hildegard Von Bingen: The Sacred Fire
38:12 / Estampie / Materia Mystica: II. Air: Qui sunt hi - O antigui sancti - Aer enim volat - Kyrie / Materia Mystica
41:42 / Jocelyn Montgomery & David Lynch / Gloria Patri / Lux Vivens
44:11 / Poor Clare Sisters Arundel / Ubi Caritas / Light for the World
46:01 / Paul Schwartz / Et Misericordia / State of Grace II: Turning to Peace
50:04 / Divine Works / Interlude II / Soundtrack to the New Millennium
53:10 / Voxfire / Fontis / Fontis

Album Review: Connections by Sherry Finzer

Review by Lissette Cascante

Phoenix-based, classically trained flutist Sherry Finzer has received many accolades and awards for her musical contributions primarily in the relaxation/meditation genre. Her branding encompasses the use of a collection of low flutes, including alto, bass, and contrabass flutes, as well as a variety of Native American-style and world flutes. Often wind instruments are mixed with sacred chants, ethereal sounds, natural and other ethnic arrangements to create her soundscapes. Sherry has recorded, toured, and performed with a variety of accomplished artists whose collaboration has also influenced her unique sound and style. She has released over twenty-seven solo and collaborative albums and numerous singles.

Sherry’s latest solo release, Connections, was inspired by the legendary American flautist Paul Horn who was a pioneer of world and contemporary instrumental music as well as a practitioner of transcendental meditation. Sherry is a firm believer in the power of music to aid in the healing process. Connections is a fitting title for this album given the uncertainty of the current times we are living in; many have suffered isolation, illness or tragedy and are yearning for the support and strength which comes from being able to share and connect with others.

After starting to livestream on the Insight Timer Meditation App in 2020, Sherry began connecting with thousands of fans and followers who shared testimonies of just how much her previous recordings, and her livestreams, were helping them through the grieving process, letting go of stress, improve sleep, or aided in lessening their physical pain. She wanted to share her gratitude and have this recording be about her listeners. All songs on the album were either created in memory of loved ones who have passed, or for someone who currently uses Sherry's music as part of their daily therapy or healing regimen. The flutes used were selected by the participants – each person selecting the flute that resonated with them most.

The album’s seventeen tracks take the listener through a continuum of healing sound and light. The first track “Resilience” serves as the impetus to elevate us to that higher place above our cares, and concerns. The song titles speak to us of familiar comforts like nature, water, new days, blessings, peace, journeying, coming home, connecting, and communing with Spirit. With each subsequent song one can cast off all encumbrances, negative energies, and unhealthy emotions.

Caught up in the gentle whirlwind of her flute sounds and melodies, one feels a sense of release and weightlessness, like a boundless floating experience. The experience is so blissful, like the end of a massage therapy or stretch/cool-down session, you’ll wish, as I did, to remain in that state indefinitely. Perhaps why some listeners say they listen to Sherry’s music 24/7. How wonderful that Sherry chooses to use and to share her musical talents with the world as a channel to bring comfort, relief, and much needed healing.

Connections is the third solo flute release in Sherry Finzer's "Naked Flute" series recorded at The Tank. Her music can be heard under her name as well as her groups Majestica and Evenfall on various international radio programming, international airlines, and overhead music channels.

Besides composing and recording, Sherry is the founder and CEO of the Heart Dance Records label featuring musicians from around the world with a mission of creating music for peace and wellness. She is also founder of the Higher Level Media promotions company, as well as one of the three founding members of the Mindful Music Association. Sherry live streams weekly on the Insight Timer meditation app.

~Lissette Cascante for Journeyscapes Radio

For more information please visit Sherry Finzer's website. Connections is also available at Bandcamp, Amazon, and more.

Journeyscapes DJ Set: Northern Lights 8

A luminous ambient soundscape inspired by the aurora borealis! 

TIME / ARTIST / TRACK / ALBUM
00:25 / Erik Wøllo / Light Among the Shadows / North Star
05:02 / Kevin Braheny & Tim Clark / The Sail of Argo Navis / The Spell
12:03 / Chronotope Project / Eidos, Realm of the Forms / Gnosis
22:02 / Richard Ross / Alpha Particles / Ambientopia
28:57 / David Wright & Carys / Night Tide / Prophecy
35:22 / Kelly David / Distance / Illusive
42:38 / Martin Stürtzer / Sky’s Edge / Illumination Cycle
48:34 / Biome / Occulus / Essence

Album Review: Return of the Star Elders by Lia Scallon

Review by Candice Michelle

Born in Ireland and currently residing in Australia, Lia Scallon is an award-winning composer, producer and singer who’s released several albums through her Sounds of Sirius music label. Additionally, she leads “sacred travels” group tours and workshops that have taken her to enthralling locations around the world including the deserts of the American Southwest, jungles of Mexico, rainforests of Australia, and landscapes of Ireland.

Comprised of 9 compositions spanning just under an hour and 20 minutes, Return of the Star Elders, much like its predecessors, is inspired by Lia's mystical pursuits with an overarching theme of Pleiades and Sirius star-lore.

The album’s line-up of contributing musicians includes Nigel Pegrum (flute, keyboard, percussion and ambient sound sculpture), David Hudson (digeridoo, aboriginal vocals), Kirk Steel (keyboards), Simon McMenamin (violin and viola), Nerace (keyboards), and Ben Hakalitz (drums).

However, the most distinguishable feature throughout is Lia’s soprano vocals which variably conjure images of a fairy godmother singing in the woodlands, to that of an ancient temple Oracle incanting from high on a mountaintop.

Inside the liner notes are references to ancestral legends of diverse cultures and civilizations from antiquity (including those of Greek, Irish, Egyptian, Maya, Polynesian, Native American and Australian Aboriginal peoples), albeit related through the modern lens of theosophical doctrines and ancient astronaut theory, rather than from a scholarly standpoint of these various civilizations’ own mytho-historical origins. Nevertheless, from an aesthetic perspective, Lia’s artful compositions are rich with dazzlingly enchantment that effectively carry the listener away on a peacefully poetic and magical journey to sacred sites and mysterious places of natural wonder across the globe.

Subtle shamanic percussion underlies pieces like “Arrival of the Star Elders” and “Ancient Kachina Wisdom”, on which Lia’s primal-like chants seemingly echo throughout a nocturnal valley beneath a brilliant canopy of stars.

Compositions like “Isle of the Druids” and “Return to Lemuria” weave ethereal invocations and soothing ocean waves into a mist-filled soundscape that perfectly paint an idyllic environment tended to by nymphs, fairies and unicorns.

Listeners are also transported to the Himalayas on “Tibetan Skygods”, the Australian Outback on “Uluru Galactic Portal”, and the jungles of Central America on “Temple of the Maya”.

A mesmerizing audio-visual experience that can be described perhaps as “Constance Demby meets Medwyn Goodall”, Return of the Star Elders is quintessential earth-centered music well-suited for stargazing, spa therapy and communing with nature.

~Candice Michelle for Journeyscapes Radio

For more information please visit the the Sounds of Sirius website. Return of the Star Elders is also available at Amazon, iTunes and more.

Album Review: Gnosis by Chronotope Project

Review by Candice Michelle

Gnosis is the 9th album from Chronotope Project, the recording alias of Oregonian ambient/electronic music composer and cellist, Jeffery Ericson Allen, as well as his 5th release on the Spotted Peccary Music label. Inspired by his love for Greek philosophy and passion for storytelling, Gnosis (meaning “knowledge” in Greek) came as a wonderful surprise to me given my own interest in ancient Greek culture and philosophy.

Spotted Peccary’s resident graphic designer Daniel Pipitone impressively illustrates the sonic essence of the album; his surreal artwork design beautifully adding tangibility to Chronotope Project’s otherworldly musical landscape.

Comprised of 6 compositions spanning approximately 53 minutes, Gnosis seemingly traverses interlaced boundaries of cosmic realms and watery underworlds, wherein the listener’s mind is drawn to philosophical musings about the nature of space and time while simultaneously becoming more deeply immersed in the sensuous, tangible world around.

Guiding our way along this metamorphic musical journey is Chronotope Project’s signature use of the Haken Continuum Fingerboard synthesizer, which the artist uses to create hauntingly emotive melodies that bend and wind with voice-like inflection.

The opening piece, "Higgs Field, Cauldron of Being", unfolds in a gradual succession of repeating sequences, echoing timbres and train-like rhythmic undercurrent, as if spiraling outward from a cosmic cauldron illuminating the heavens. 

 
Drawing inspiration from a Greek mythical river in the underworld of Hades, “Lethe, The River of Forgetfulness” paints a watery abode pierced by starlight with its fusion of fingerboard synthesizer, vintage space elements and pulsing melodic bassline.

Conveying both earthy and cosmic imagery, “Eidos, Realm of the Forms” incorporates crystalline and hollow-like timbres that drift upon a continuous hypnotic propulsion, as the fingerboard synthesizer melody seems to chart its course along the backdrop of a giant interstellar wavelength.

Turning to more heavenly aspirations, “The Still Small Voice” is a poignantly comforting piece that draws upon softly cinematic and minimalist classical influences, conveying a celestial warmth and peaceful melancholy.

I’m particularly drawn to “Entelechy, Emergent Order”, which seemingly transports us to the furthest reaches of space. Slowly emerging from a distance, the piece’s rhythmic figures, droning undercurrent and liquid-like bell tones are encompassed by voice-like shadows that create a hauntingly magnificent soundscape.

Inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, “Myth of the Cave” brilliantly closes the album with a foreboding sojourn into darkly cinematic minimalism, as if guiding us through a cavernous underworld. Subtle Eastern mystical touches evoke images of the mythical inner earth paradise of Shamballa, as the composition seemingly culminates with an ultimate unveiling of timeless mysteries.

Expanding further upon the impeccable brilliance of Lotus Rising (2018) and Ovum (2017), Jeffrey Ericson Allen’s Chronotope Project has delivered another masterwork with Gnosis that places him in top league among the greatest ambient/electronic music acts of all time!

~Candice Michelle for Journeyscapes Radio


 

Gnosis is available at Spotted Peccary Music, Bandcamp and Amazon.

Journeyscapes DJ Set: Mythic Twilight 5

An ethereal chillout mix inspired by myth & fantasy! 

TIME / ARTIST / TRACK / ALBUM
00:24 / Mark Dwane / Techno Tribes / Earthlings
05:47 / Hideyo Blackmoon / Desert Rose / White Sun
11:52 / ELEON / Shimmering Light / Crossover
17:02 / Amethystium / Arcane Voices / Odonata
20:59 / Australis / Passage / Sentient Genus
25:55 / Vangelis / Echoes / Voices
33:57 / Deep Imagination / Longing for Peace / My Silent Celebration
39:00 / Delerium / Metamorphosis / Semantic Spaces
47:00 / Giuseppe Dio / Flight of the Phoenix / The Phoenix
50:03 / Sylvain Carel / The Golden Doors / Atlantide
57:48 / Deborah Martin / Eye of the Wizard / Eye of the Wizard