Asai Kastan Duo Releases New Ambient Jazz Album Earth Travelers

Earth Travelers is a new album by Asai Kastan Duo, consisting of Takeshi Asai on piano and Brian Kastan playing fretless bass. Together, they create an atmosphere of space and texture with an ongoing gentle flow of energy. This album is like waves on the ocean; waves are constantly flowing creating tension and release, as a wave gently rises and breaks then forms another wave. Together, the piano and bass are like the wave as the musical tension and release is an ongoing state of flow.

Earth Travelers offers the listener a chance to take a deep emotional journey and tap into an imaginary world. Earth Travelers covers several musical directions, from ballads, jazz blues, open grooves, short abstract moments, to open ambient spaces.

Released April 23^rd, 2026.

The concept behind Earth Travelers is to create dialogue between acoustic piano and fretless bass. At times the bass plays the melody, sometimes it plays the groove, and vice versa with the piano. Earth Travelers offers a unique sensitive listening experience as the piano and fretless bass keep offering each other new musical ideas to interpret and develop into new energy. Often the album is ambient and mellow, sometimes swinging, sometimes grooving, and anything in between.

Earth Travelers was composed and recorded live at Takeshi Asai studio at DCT productions in New York City.

Asai Kastan Duo tour dates will be announced soon.

Takeshi Asai

Traditional yet modern, lyrical yet dramatic, jazz pianist Takeshi Asai has been a one-of-a-kind voice in New York’s jazz scene for more than ten years. His performance combines the melodic lyricism of Bill Evans with the feverish blues of Thelonious Monk, all enriched by the sophisticated improvisational style and the classical piano roots.

What makes Takeshi Asai’s music unique and aesthetic are his multitude sources of inspiration. He sees beauty in 12th-century French troubadours, Gregorian chants, Baroque and Romantic traditions, 20th-century music (i.e. Janáček, Takemitsu), religious music (Faure, Poulenc), the Beatles, Irish and Japanese folk music, as well as modern electronic music.

Besides his constant club engagements in NYC with talented contemporaries and legends, Takeshi Asai has a hugely successful international career; touring in Poland, UK, France, Germany, Egypt, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

He currently lives in New York, where he runs his own production company.

Brian Kastan

Brian Kastan is a prolific composer and improvisor.

Brian has recorded 100 albums under his Space 2 Groove record label and recorded 11 albums with 5 different Grammy-winning jazz artists such as Mino Cinelu, Rachel Z, Scott Petito, Leo Genovese, and Miles Griffith. Brian has completed European tours with the Brian Kastan Freedom Trio and Transatlantic Concept with Urbuli Baba. Plus, Brian toured in China headlining Lincoln Center Shanghai with the Brian Kastan Quartet.

Brian also has composed soundtracks for TV and Film:

Movie: American Criminal, Blue Lives Matter

TV Show: Hospital Arrest with acclaimed movie & TV director Dylan Bank. Starring Robert Loggia, Jimmie Walker, Martin Kove, Gilbert Gottfried, Michael Winslow, Todd Bridges, Jewels McCollough

Side Projects: Played guitar on Rhys Chatham’s A Crimson Grail (Nonesuch Records), played guitar for MTV Rock the Vote, composed songs with Emmy-nominated composer recording engineer Marc Solomon.

To purchase: https://space2grooverecords2.bandcamp.com/album/earth-travelers

For more information:
https://www.space2grooverecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/brian.kastan.9
https://www.facebook.com/TakeshiAsaiJazz

Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158, glassonyonpr@gmail.com

Swedish Artist Malou Berg Re-releases World Music 3 CD Album Box Set LightSongs

Snäcksjön, Sweden – Malou Mountain Music AB is thrilled to reactivate her 3 CD album boxset LightSongs on all streaming services and to order at Amazon.com.

Singer/composer Malou Berg’s 3 CD box set, LightSongs, contains 15 songs spanning nearly three hours of music, and was the final release in Malou Berg’s series of nine CDs called The Pleiadian Suite.

The arrangements combine melodious orchestration with Malou’s voice and other vocalists, sung in Berg’s imaginary language she calls Pleiadian. It’s a melodious language, that intuitively is still understood on a spiritual level by the listener.

“It started on a whim when I was composing HOYA, the first album in my Pleiadian suite. At the piano, trying out melodies, I began to sing along with words that sounded good and felt nice to sing. That evolved and turned into words and the words became sentences. It just felt like a natural musical and universal language. That's how Pleiadian was born, all those years ago”, says Malou Berg.

LightSongs was recorded in one of Sweden’s top studios Nilento, in Gothenburg. The composing, arranging and recording of the work took place over several years.

Listen to LightSongs on malou.se: https://www.malou.se/en/lightsongs-all-songs

Available on all major streaming services.

Order at Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKHRPB1N

Official Website: https://www.malou.se/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MalouBergMMM/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maloubergmusic/

Contact information:
Stefan Egmar
Stiggy Music & Management AB
Tel: +46 70-5625752
Mail: stefan@stiggymusic.com

Press inquiries: Keith James, Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158 (USA), glassonyonpr@gmail.com

Pianist and Composer Heidi Breyer Releases A Breathtaking New Album “Letters From Far Away” Featuring Legendary Will Ackerman

“The music is at once technically breathtaking and emotionally intimate. A rare and wonderful combination.” - Will Ackerman

Frenchtown, NJ - Pianist and composer Heidi Breyer has released a breathtaking new album of unparalleled beauty titled “Letters From Far Away.” The new release is a double solo and piano instrumental album and Heidi’s debut production alongside legendary Will Ackerman (Founder Windham Hill Records) and Tom Eaton. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered at Imaginary Road Studios in Vermont and Studio Sound in LA.

Says Heidi, “ 'Letters From Far Away' is my musical interpretation of a handful of experiences in the story of one couple, each from different countries, who met in 1960 and after 5 years apart, against all odds, walked the rest of their lives together. It is also about love in all it's forms, how love is the common denominator that transcends time and links the generations over the course of decades. It is the one thing that connects us all.”

Winner of ZMR Best Instrumental piano Album 2012, Nominated ZMR Best Holiday Album 2011, Winner of ZMR Best Instrumental Piano Album 2010 and Best New Artist 2010, Heidi Breyer has four albums to her credit – Winter Light 2009, Another Place and Time 2010, Beyond The Turning 2012, Letters From Far Away 2015. She has performed on stages worldwide and opened the first ever live ZMR Awards show performing with Premik Russell-Tubbs (Sting), Jill Haley and Michael Ronstadt. Her music has been featured on many compilations including the Grammy Nominated Album for Best Spoken Word, “The Storm King” an Auto Biographical Narration by the late Pete Seeger, Produced by Jeff Haynes, also The Gathering (West River Records), Many Miles Music (Seattle based label) and Sounds of The Circle by Suzanne Doucet. British born and conservatory educated at Trinity College of Music in London, Heidi Breyer now resides in the artistic community of Frenchtown, NJ, an inspiring setting where she composes her music, prepares for her multi-media concerts, teaches and manages the business of world-renowned Russian painter, Alexander Volkov.

“Heidi Breyer continues to amaze with her evolution as a composer and as a performer. The range of styles represented in Letters From Far Away is considerable, but like the outer planets in our solar system, these are held together by the gravity and persuasion of Breyer's Artistic Voice.” - Will Ackerman, Grammy winning Guitarist, Producer, Imaginary Road Studios and founder of Windham Hill Records.

And now, in 2015, Heidi has released her most stunning achievement to date, the new album “Letters From Far Away”! Says Heidi, “I wrote the entire collection with the intention of releasing my first piano solo project. But in the very first session the opportunity for some major counter-melody from other specific instruments was revealing itself to me. The main instrumental voices that I was imagining were cello, violin, guitar and English Horn, mostly because I have worked with these sounds before and have an understanding of their capacity for expression within my music. Clarinet was non-negotiable on Small Cafe. Every time I hear that instrument it propels me back in time and for that piece as with all others, it was the only option. Then saxophone, french horn and bass guitar...all came very naturally...

“Will Ackerman has amazing perceptual awareness. He has mentored me for several years now, both in regard to my music and helping me to further discover and push my own development as an artist. He knows when to step back and when to guide. As this project progressed he was clearly observing my need for specifics...not just instrumentally but also melodically, harmonically and rhythmically and yet he also knew when to bring forth his knowledge and experience for the better. Along with Tom Eaton's own depth of production experience, I think we made a pretty good team! All the session players I work with are in their own right top-shelf artists. Many of them are on all of my albums. They really listened, understood and interpreted accurately and delivered, in my opinion, flawlessly. The list of players I worked with (and hope to again) include but are not limited to Eugene Friesen, Jill Haley, Charlie Bisharat, Gus Sebring, Mark Schulman, Will Ackerman.”

Here's what's being said about Heidi Breyer's “Letters From Far Away”:

“ 'Letters From Far Away' is a love story that began more than five decades ago across the briny Atlantic. For the world, it was a time of new beginnings. For the lovers it was the birth of something so inexplicable that neither poets with their rhymes, nor philosophers with their thoughts could define it. Until now. It would take extraordinary music to explain it. Enter pianist Heidi Breyer. She takes on the monumental task of telling a story that does not appear in known fairytales, but in the chronicles of the heart. Using her incredible composition skills, she offers not one, but two eleven-track disks of solo piano and its companion instrumental pieces. She takes on the role of bard, storyteller, musician, and singer – a modern day Scheherazade. The contemporary music is twenty-two glimpses into the history of lovers that came from two different worlds and whose devotion was strong enough and endured long enough to build a single world of love. Let us meet the lovers.” - RJ Lannen, Zone Music Reporter

“A new release by Heidi Breyer is always worth waiting for, but this time she has out done herself and her deeply meaningful creation of Letters from far Away, will be regarded by her fans and the followers of piano based music, as real raising of the musical bar, her many listeners, of which I urge you to be one of, will be deeply moved for an eternity by this incredible release.” - Steve Sheppard, OWMR

“Heidi Breyer's 'Letters From Far Away' is an amazing collection of lovely piano based music. I particularly loved the idea of having a double CD set- One with Solo Piano versions and the other with subtle arrangements. Being a musician I could see the tremendous amount of attention to detail that has gone into the writing and performance. As a pure listener, I loved the option to chose which CD to listen to based on my mood. Overall a fantastic musical experience and I wish Heidi all the best for this wonderful work.” - Ricky Kej, Grammy Winner Producer, 2015 of New Age Album of the year, (Winds of Samsara)

“Heidi has provided us with a treasure trove of beautiful recorded music, as well as an upcoming fifth CD to look forward to. Heidi Breyer is a truly remarkable instrumentalist and composer whose expressive and melodic range is impressive, as is her emotionally evocative touch on the keyboard. Letters From Far Away is musical storytelling at its best and illuminates the talents of a rising star in the piano world. - Michael Diamond, Music and Media Focus.”

“Heidi's music is the perfect synthesis of academia and passion. This is music informed by years of study and a rich life. The music is at once technically breathtaking and emotionally intimate. A rare and wonderful combination.” - Will Ackerman

In closing Heidi has this to impart, “Music is an elixir for life, love, catharsism and general well being. Always has been and always will be... My music is written to nourish and combat the impact of today's crazy, restless world, but it is not music for meditation relaxation...I do not strive to help empty the mind through musical meditation. There is a lot of great New Age Music that already does this successfully. I present an alternative perspective, deliver a brief but thoughtful departure to another life imagined through the music, and bring the listener back through the same escape route to reality, feeling a refreshed and grounded in their real lives. I believe the New Age music genre is breaking through to a new era at the very moment it is needed. We know that certain types of music are a part of most peoples daily balancing act. But in addition, we are observing that our human psyche is evolving and we are using our core (our soul, our intuition) to guide us more and more and not just our 5 known senses (that tell us the immediate things)...I believe our instinctive leaning toward New Age music contributes to that 'beacon'. It is music for our lifestyles. It is one of the facets of the balancing act that we will become more and more reliant upon, almost medicinally. I for one, know that I am someone who can help in that regard. So the message is...check out New Age Music. Check out all of my music and see how it can truly help you.”

To purchase:
For Albums - http://heidibreyer.com/?page_id=237
For Songs and Albums - http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/heidibreyer2

For more information: http://heidibreyer.com

Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158, glassonyonpr@gmail.com