"Good improvisation communicates harmonic progression melodically. Effective melodies manipulate harmonic content through the use of guide tones and preparatory gravity notes, masterfully woven in systematic tension, release, and transparent harmonic definition."
To satisfy your acoustic music craving, look no farther than the body of audio out of the Malibu, California studio of Gayle Ellet and Todd Montgomery, AKA Fernwood. We reviewed their first album Almeria almost seven years ago, captivated by their fresh "soundscape" music. All the recordings are literally "made by hand," none of the auto-tune, electronically sterile music of today's talent-challenged pop music scene. Delightfully refreshing.
They've since produced a follow up CD, Sangita (2009) and for 2015 their latest, Arcadia, an instrumental music narrative that aesthetically yearns in "an endless search for an unspoiled wilderness of great beauty, a utopian paradise." It's a sonic palette of folk and ethnic instruments expertly layered and produced. From their website: they combine "modern and classical music concepts, with the traditional sounds of Greek & Irish bouzouki, sitar, dilruba, quirquincho, Chinese ruan, Turkish cumbus, Moroccan oud, harmonium, gimbri, rababa, bulbul tarang, jal tarang, dotara, surmandal, tambura, manjira, tumbi, bugchu, gopichand, violin, mandolin, acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, tenor banjo, tenor ukulele, bells & chimes, acoustic piano, rhodes piano, upright bass, field recordings and other sounds.
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April 6, 2015 | New from Fernwood; Arcadia
