Album Notes

\"No one plays the cymbalom, the large hammered dulcimer, the way Michael Masley does. His creative brilliance goes beyond his performance... Masley...invented \"bowhammers\"...finding rich, haunting overtones that characterize his music.\"
--Bob Boilen--producer, All Songs Considered, NPR Classics (liner notes)

\"...I realized, my God, Steven\'s right, he is a genius...you have to dig a little, like I was doing, but, he really is...he\'s DIFFERENT...There\'s NO one out there doing that in this country...it\'s soul music, in absolutely the purest form...it comes from the Street, it comes from that kind of player who\'s had to make a living by turning people on who are there--in the Street...\" Producer Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, John Lennon, Patti Smith...) Art Officially Favored documental interview @ Tonehenge / Berkeley CA 3-18-02

\"unbelievable harmonic resonances\" --Butch Vig (producer/drummer of multiplatinum rock act GARBAGE) Musician Magazine interview

\"cymbalom master...a wondrous new way of playing...\" --Jesse Hamlin / San Francisco Chronicle

\"The way he plays...is completely unique...an ethereal sound...glowing, angelic, celestial.\" --Carl Stone (avant-garde composer) --MOJO

\"an extraordinary and utterly unique hammered dulcimer player\" --Dean Suzuki / Progression Magazine

\"master of extended cymbalom technique\" --Bart Hopkin / Experimental Musical Instruments

\"...hammered dulcimer master...\" --Anil Prasad / Innerviews

\"nothing short of amazing...ethereal, symphonic, and percussive... complex and accessible, invigorating and relaxing\"--da Flower Punk / pauserecord.com

\"Masley is a genius...his music appears to come from another world...an unforgettable collection...\" --Gianluigi Gasparetti / DEEP LISTENINGS (Italy)

\"breathtaking...incredibly dense, spherical...brilliant\" --Walter Bast / FOLK-MICHEL (Germany)


\"...vast in scope...as wizardly a soundtrack to the Harry Potter books as one could hope for...\" --Mitch Ritter / DIRTY LINEN

\"Masley\'s specialty is strange instruments...bears the mark of traditional music, but is also disconnected from all tradition...a form of ethnic, eastern ambient without getting tiresome...a very different musical world...a gigantic ear-opener...\" --Simen Viig Ostensen / TARKUS (Norway)

\"...sparkling excursions...chiaroscuro nuances...these are new rhythms, harmonies and constructions of a superior mind...\" --Gianluigi Gasparetti / DEEP LISTENINGS (Italy)

\"one of our more unique artists...Masley finds a global balance, with hypnotic results that transport the listener...on the fast track to another world...\" --Lloyde Barde / COMMON GROUND