Album Notes

Life Span - Joseph Maas
New Age/Soundscapes/World

Beautiful New Age soundscapes from Northern California composer Joseph Maas.

Intricately arranged with occasional classical style movements, the compositions are largely instrumental but also incorporate voices from around the world in expressive multi-layered choral washes with the occassional sterling lead sung in an ancient and nearly forgotten language.


30 second review from SolarCitadel.com:

Often cinematic in scale and with emphasis on flowing melodic passages, Life Span is an atmospheric journey from the depths of the African Continent to the windswept byways of the South Pacific.

Be it the slow, liquid tones of an antique 12 string guitar played in a unique style against the backdrop of New Zealand's Ohakune rain forest (Life Span) or the haunting strains of the ancient double reed Daduke (After the Storm), this music is an exploration in sonic textures that invoke strange lands and new vistas within the mind’s eye.

Through use of both rare traditional instruments such as the Middle Eastern Daduke, as well as electronically invented instruments (that have essentially never been heard before), with all the delicate phrasing and subtle nuances normally heard in the concert hall, it is easy to tell that a dream (in every meaning of the word) has been realized in this work.

Thirty months in the making, Life Span is certainly one of the more interesting road trips through the ever changing landscape of the New Age genre.