Instrumental New Age Review: Laurence Furr-Deep Peace

Release Date: October 9, 2020

Label: Real Music

Website

It is the night after the Presidential election and I need a cup of soothing musical tea to calm the storm brewing in my heart and soul. There is so much going on right now, so much unrest and uncertainty about so many things all at once. Today was the day it hit me like a tidal wave. Before that, I was dealing with it just fine, kind of like wading on the shoreline watching the coming storm. It still is not over but music is the ultimate elixir for me to leave that space of thought.

I found the perfect Deep Peace with Laurence Furr. His recent release of new age instrumental excellence has fifteen tracks and over an hour of music to absorb. You can take it all in through what I call the triangle of life - mind, body, and spirit. Like an essential healing oil, this music can melt away the day's stress. It is up to you whether or not you decide to go back to get it. Laurence Furr’s Celtic Harp is so influential he has the title of Therapeutic Musician.

And indeed, he is with Deep Peace. That term is so prolific and it remains quite elusive in today's world. There is a way out of that corner though and Laurence is offering that through the music on this recording. Dr. Furr is Cantor (Director of Music) at Trinity Lutheran Church in Ft. Worth, Texas. So that gives you an indication of where he is coming from and how deeply rooted his commitment is to people in his community. If you explore his website you will see a picture of him in a hospital surrounded by smiling nurses. He contributes his soothing harp music at the hospital. It is like bringing in a friendly dog for the patients to pet, it is disarming, brings the blood pressure down and all you can focus on is that one experience. Come to think of it, that is what music always does for me that is why I find it so easy to disconnect and let go of the day because of the meditative focus that music like this provides.

There is no doubt that this music is a part of heaven, its beauty will be obvious to any listener regardless of what they are seeking to find within it. I like to talk about music as a tool and the different aspects of what it can be used for. Focusing on the instrumentation is very important however in the end it is what the music does for you when you listen to it and how it makes you feel once it stops playing.

I always like to pick one track to add to my New Age Music Reviews Spotify Playlist and this time I found it difficult to make that decision because each track is excellent. I decided to choose “Healing Light.” First for the track name and what it can mean. This can be the light of a new day, the blazing sun on a beautiful summer day, the smile from a stranger walking by you on the street, or the way to your higher power or chosen path of religion or studies. The term light has many meanings and implications and I think Laurence personifies that in his music. The harp as a stand-alone instrument is most impressive if played properly. He not only plays it properly; it becomes an extension of his physical body and personality. This is a gorgeous track worthy of going on any new age music playlist.

Laurence also plays keyboards and the Native American Flute which makes few appearances on this album, notably on “Brown of the Soil.” The title of the track is a nice tribute to our Native American brother and sisters and a nod to the importance and reverence they have always had for mother earth. Lord knows if we had followed their ways all along, we would not be seeing environmental disasters on the scale we are seeing currently.

Deep Peace brings about a lot of thoughts and at the same time a lovely feeling of bliss and becoming one with the music. I took it all in and looked at the titles and their meanings from my viewpoint. It all made perfect sense and was a great listen where I found healing sounds that I greatly appreciated at the right time. I hope all of you listeners out there will find the same. We all need it so give it a listen and feel better and more hopeful than you were yesterday.

Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck-New Age Music Reviews Founder

November 4, 2020

Track List:
01. Quiet Earth
02. Red Wind of the East
03. Silver of the Dew
04. Grey Wind of the West
05. Gold of the Sun
06. Green of the Grass
07. Running Wave
08. Flowing Air
09. Sleeping Stones
10. Quiet Rain
11. Healing Light
12. Brown of the Soil
13. Shining Stars    
14. White of the Moon   
15. Gentle Night

Contemporary Instrumental-Ambient Review: Jon Durant-Soul Of A River

Release Date: October 9, 2020

Label: Real  Music

Website

Jon Durant has an immersive catalog of recorded music dating back to 1994. I had the pleasure of covering two releases prior to the latest effort Soul Of A River. In 2018 my introduction  was  Parting Is and in 2019 Alternate Landscapes.  So, with each passing year I get another slice or aural ear candy from Jon to absorb.

Jon explained the recording like this: “With Soul of a River I wanted to capture the feeling of peace and stillness that I experience living right on the Willamette River. There’s a meditative quality to the experience of watching the river flow past that I hope is reflected in this music—both through the sounds and the melodies.”

Jon’s unique fretless cloud guitar sounds could pass for other ambient textures and sounds. In actuality that is what he is creating with an exceptional degree of excellence. There is a lot to take in within each track and not one is under six minutes and the longest “Current,” clocks in at nearly eleven minutes.
 
The cloud reference is quite fitting actually because the music does give one the feeling of floating above our earthly confines. I do understand where he is coming from with the relation to a flowing river. Life does have a flow to it and it signifies our activities within each of our lives. Some rivers are slow moving because there is not enough water pushing through and others flow with tremendous purpose non-stop. We can look at our lives that way, everyone flows differently with an entirely dissimilar objective in mind. Music also has a definitive flow to it, with varying degrees of force and purpose. It brings one to the conclusion that life itself is all connected  -  humans, the animal kingdom, and nature as a living entity unto itself. As the animals have instinctual behavior we humans run more on emotion and act on that. Thus the immediate reaction to the sounds around us, which is more cerebral than instinctual, and in particular strongly to the music we listen.

In the case of Soul Of A River, which is an interpretation of nature in more broader sense, this music conceptualizes that thought pattern and brings it to life. This is relaxing, contemplative, and very meditative music. This brings me to the conclusion that yes, it is instrumental but there is a lot to more to it than that. The foundation of this album draws from an ambient space experimental approach to a broadened appreciation of the tenets of new age.

The congealing into one musical unit in every track is most significant and on the longest and most poignant piece “Currents.” It is filled with many layers and all the spaces are filled in with sounds that take you away to the stars beyond our earthly existence. If that is the primary purpose of this music, and I am not the one to say it is, for me it most certainly had the effect.

While the Soul Of A River is spiritual and one of our many earthly delights, a touch of heaven and the stars beyond is what this music can project very strongly at times. Again, it all ties into life itself and how important music can be interconnected to everything for our enjoyment and times for healing. And finally, what it means for each individuals interpretation.

Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck-New Age Music Reviews Founder
October 31, 2020

Track List:
1. Tributaries 05:58
2. Current 10:37
3. Estuary 09:11   
4. Glistening 06:16
5. Watercourse 08:27
6. Flow 06:08