Bliss Of Being, Listener Album Review

[gena]

THE PURE HEART ENSEMBLE OFFERS MUSIC OF COMPASSION, BLISS AND LOVE

Longtime new age pianist and composer Richard Shulman (who has a couple of dozen albums out) has done solo piano, piano with synth, piano with light ensemble instrumentation, and even a bit of near-symphonic work. But I am not sure he has ever put together a new age group to play all-acoustic music like this current project by The Pure Heart Ensemble. Shulman has done plenty of healing, meditational and relaxational recordings, but here he specifically incorporates all of those traditional new age music perks and goes on to focus on finding your bliss, a noteworthy cause.

This Bliss of Being CD also includes Adriana Contino on cello, Kate Steinbeck on various flutes, vocalist Dielle Ciesco humming and singing wordlessly, and Bob Hinkle popping in occasionally on Tibetan crystal bowls (which always lends an otherworldly aura). They create a lovely sound together –- not too dense, but with enough action going on to make it interesting.

The finding-your-bliss concept can be followed by looking at the tune titles, but basically it is a personal spiritual journey that opens you to new places, feelings and sacred connections, and then finally to “Loving All” which we can assume to mean everyone and everything. Total bliss would probably be needed for such an enterprise in today’s dog-eat-dog world. The album then ends with the hauntingly-lovely and short tune “When We Go Home We Go Together,” which probably has some deep symbolism stored in those words, but if you think it means the final journey, it would be diametrically opposite of when Jackson Browne sang, “In the end there is one dance you’ll do alone.” Regardless, it is some beautiful music to close the recording with.

So, if you need music for spiritual guidance, inner exploration, a sacred journey or simply deep relaxation and meditation, this CD would work perfectly. There is no doubt, upon listening, that the music comes straight from the hearts of these musicians. And we can only assume, based on the name of their group, that they felt they cleansed themselves, washed their souls and came to this project as pure of heart as possible so as to create and then offer us music that could touch and affect our souls without a lot of crap getting in the way. At least that is the way this music feels. It comes across as a special gift of love without any of the extra baggage of pain, guilt, regret or sorrow. That is about as pure as it gets. I can believe that these musicians were in a blissful state when they made this music. Feel their compassion, bliss and love in every note.


Review on The Pure Heart Ensemble
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[iolanda]

Thank so much for sharing... I'm going to visit the album page, new-age music is another kind of music that I love
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iolanda