November 2, 2008

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  Hard to believe it’s going to be 72 degrees here, in Minnesota today!
  The Minnesota Vikings play today, so can’t miss that game.

  I got the sides of my large toenails trimmed the other day, as I had ingrown toenails.
  They hurt and have to  be soaked every day.  I walk around ‘limpy Lou.’

  Still have plant stuff to deal with outside-hope to get that done,
  as well as some household chores. 

  Let’s add a little music!

  Colors of Trance
  James Asher &
  Madeleine Doherty
  2006

  Australian didgeridoo-and-percussion maestro James Asher has
  always been focused on movement—of people, tectonic plates, clouds, the whole
  revolving world—as testified by the muscular figures in funky lockstep on his
  album covers. With Colors of Trance, Asher has two great ideas that he
  merges together beautifully. The first is to use his global music palette to
  reproduce the frenzied sounds of trance; nothing exactly new for Asher, but
  unique in its focus and in the natural vibe he brings to the music (as most
  trance makes no bones about the synthetic, electronic nature of its beats). The
  second idea is to bring in the acclaimed classical harpist Madeleine Doherty to
  play on the tracks. A restrained virtuoso with taste and peerless tonality, her
  contribution is what moves this into the realm of great collaborative-fusion
  art. With the concert-quality harp in action against Asher’s frenetic armies of
  koto drums, Chinese zithers, didgeridoos, and funky beats, Colors! of
  Trance skids and slithers around the globe until it’s crisscrossed enough to
  resemble the inside of some cosmic tennis ball.

  Each track is given a
  color name, and the opener “Olive” kicks things off with a jam that restlessly
  moves across the Eurasian continent in its style and instrumentation, never
  losing its basic, hard-driving techno beat. “Yellow” is much cheerier and more
  mellow. “Gold” is where the trance element shines brightest, with a frenetic
  beat that will be instantly familiar to dance-club mavens although the swirling
  harp notes and calming guitars may be a bit of a surprise.

  After all
  that dancing, the sudden emergence into pure ambient weirdness may be just what
  the doctors ordered, but even they won’t be able to believe their ears.
  “Emerald” zips and drops in and out with a found sound-collage of
  electronic-frequency knob twiddling, Gregorian monk echoes, and pulsating
  synthesizers, while Doherty’s harp swirls around like a fairy spreading pixie
  dust on everyone’s eyes. So the album goes, flowing into furious dancing and
  dreaming and taking off into profound states of rest. The closer, “Peace Song,”
  leaves things on a sweet farewell note, with Doherty’s gentle harp and voice
  singing a gentle lullaby in a dizzying, sweet high soprano: “Peace I bring you /
  Only peace to you.” By then you should be so sweetly exhausted that you will
  have no choice but to accept this rare and precious gift, peace. Asher brings
  you up through the roots, and Doherty helps you open your petals to the
  sunshine.
  

  	Listen to all sound clips from this CD
  “Gold” “Emerald” “Peace Song”

  Buy this CD

  

  Enjoy your day
  day, you know you can, if you put your mind to it!

  I love you!!

  

  • 12:58 pm
  • 7 Comments