Album Notes

Chasm kicks right from the first cut, "Goes Like This." Flute and guitar, backed with drums, waste no time firing up the energy level in the room, flavored with a Latin / flamenco flair and an airy Andean sensibility. The album moves through several moods and textures, making for an enchanting, flavorful, spirited journey.

-Dan Liss
New Age Voice / April 1997


DESCRIPTION

Chasm [kaz'm] began as a multi-instrumental duo when Mark Esakoff and Michael Whipple met in 1987 while working aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Since then they have been involved with each other's musical evolution. Chasm plays World Fusion music with influences from jazz, folk, Latin and pop. Most all the instruments they use make sounds that resonate from one of three things: "wood" (marimba, maracas, etc.), "skin" (congas, gut/nylon strings, etc.), or "wind" (flute, recorder, etc.). Chasm's concept is to connect these primitive acoustic textures with modern musical structures. The result is unique instrumental music with a signature sound. It is their contribution to the vastly diverse genre of World Fusion.

Their self-titled debut release, CHASM, is arranged in two sections. The first half is rhythmic in that the sound is influenced by elements of folk, jazz, Latin and rock music. Marimba, bass and congas accompany classical guitars and flutes creating textures and shaping silence.

The second half becomes ethereal beginning with the piece "Elysian Fields." Here the sound falls somewhere between neo-classical and folk music. There are flutes, classical guitars and lutes accompanied by strings, chimes and tambourines. With this blend the desire is to make beautiful music without being sappy.