Album Notes

ATMOSHERIC MUSIC FOR ZITHERS, WINDS AND VIOLA-DA-GAMBA ... GENTLE MELODIES THAT FLOW LIKE A MOUNTAIN STREAM ...

"Open spaces, wide horizons, plenty of room to fill in the blanks and empty the mental closets. It works!"
-VICTORY REVIEW

This is the eleventh release from David Michael's independent label Purnima Productions,and the fifth duo album with Mead. The duo has collaborated since 1973 and has been featured on syndicated public radio broadcasts, network television, airlines and video soundtracks.

The CD represents a departure from their previous works. Michael is primarily known as a Celtic harpist and is somewhat of an institution for his impromptu concerts aboard ferryboats, yet there is no harp used in this
production. In an attempt to meet an increasing demand for meditational music, Michael chose zithers for the crystalline, ambient effect. He journeyed to the mountains where he recorded hours of improvisations on two zithers ... one played by each hand to maximize the number of sounding strings ...(Over 70 strings are often played at once.)For richness and warmth, he then overdubbed viola-da-gamba, a kind of medieval cello. It has six strings, compared to the four on the cello, and is tuned in fourths rather than fifths. The strings are made of gut and
there are frets which make the left hand action similar to guitar. The tuning is precisely that of the lute, only it is customarily played with a bow. Michael studied cello as a child and was primarily a guitarist for
twenty years, which makes the gamba a very accessible instrument for him.

Mead rounds out the sound with lyrical lines performed on bansuri, bass and soprano silver flutes, panflutes, saxophones and synthesizer. The result sounds like a calm conversation of soothing voices.as if gentle creatures
were cavorting by a mountain stream. The CD is 62 minutes in length and highly recommended for relaxation.