My name is Martin Scholes. I like writing reviews on Ciao. I am married, we have a cockatiel and a c...
My name is Martin Scholes. I like writing reviews on Ciao. I am married, we have a cockatiel and a cat. And a growing African Grey. Who orders the cat around!
Member since:06.12.2003
Reviews:334
Members who trust:65
I must admit that I am a fan of ambient music. By this I mean music that employs the ambient sounds of nature, melding and mixing them with newly-composed pieces of music. This type of music has been around for many, many years. An early example which you might have heard is the Nightingale recorded by the BBC in 1920 when it sang along to the cello playing of Beatrice Harrison. It really is a delightful piece, still re-broadcast every-so-often by the BBC to this day.
The CD Uninhabited, Ambient Sounds of Nature might not be in the same class as that tiny little Nightingale, but it is a really suburb CD. The tracks are Tempestuous, Turblent, Rolling booms, Passionate, Uninhabited (the title track) and Random Flashes. The performance is by Levantis.
Each piece uses modern music combined with natural sounds (the voices of humans, rain sticks, animals, the elements and more) to create a truly delightful and melodic combination of the sounds of the natural world and of the world of manmade, contrived (for want of a better word) music.
Each track is a lovingly created masterpiece, and although they are all recently composed, they seem, somehow, to hold an essentially timeless quality within themselves, as if each of the pieces of music is as old as time itself. And, perhaps with the careful use of ambient, natural sounds, perhaps in a way, these pieces of music are almost as old as time itself?
The songs seem to belie the titles. Although they all have what could be taken to be "butch" names, each piece of music on the CD is calming and peaceful. The title piece, Uninhabited, is the longest coming in at 16.00 minutes. Not surprisingly, the dramatic theme within this tune takes a long time to build to a dramatic peak.
The 72 minutes of music on the CD seems more in common with classical music and, I suppose, it does have a very symphonic feel to it.
As this was a present, I have no idea what it cost. Although the Ciao price comparison service should be able to help with pricing information.
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