Tag Archives: ambient

Fiona Joy Hawkins and Rebecca Daniel Present New Album
To The Wind

When Fiona and Rebecca flew to the USA from Australia, it was to tour and to record with producer Cookie Marenco. Fiona and Rebecca played to full houses in a series of iconic venues that would add a lustre to any artist resume: Carnegie Hall, Dizzys Jazz Club, The Moss Performing Arts Centre, The Hollywood Piano and topped by a live concert at Echoes for NPR.

With the tour done they moved to the studio. Producer, Cookie Marenco, known for her trademarked pristine recordings to DSD256, was ecstatic with the results. The now critically acclaimed “Heavenly Voices” is a testament to their virtuosity. The time on stage meant their skills were honed to a knife edge and “Heavenly Voices” became a heavenly recording.

‘Rather than stop recording, this duo decided to try something new – compose music on the spot and reimagine songs they had recorded in the past. They brought freshness to older pieces with piano, violin and voices. All recorded in one take, live in the studio,’ says Cookie.

“Heavenly Voices” was released globally in March 2021 with great success. With the world still shut down, Fiona, Rebecca and Cookie agreed that those stunning ‘one take’ sessions should be released. They have become the follow up – “To The Wind”.

Rebecca:
‘Personally, ‘The Void’ and ‘Blue Dream’ are two of my favourites to play. ‘My Hands Were Busy’ was initially going to be on the Lightness of Dark album, but we ran out of time. The song then became an integral part of the concerts, due to its moving and emotional connection with the audience. This collection brings a true “live” experience, presenting a concert performance with a studio quality sound. No tricks, just two musicians in a studio, recreating highlights from their concerts.’

About

Fiona Joy Hawkins is a classically trained pianist and singer inspired by Mendelssohn, Chopin and her Celtic heritage. Her song ‘Grace’ was on a GRAMMY ® winning album in 2014. In 2016, she won two categories of the Independent Music Awards. In Australia, she was an ARIA Finalist & MusicOZ Winner.

Rebecca Daniel studied violin and chamber music with Emanuel Hurwitz and the Amadeus String Quartet at The Royal Academy of Music. She was invited to move to Australia to join The Australian Chamber Orchestra, and was Orchestra Leader for Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music & Beauty and the Beast. She has recorded and performed with John Denver, Bread, James Galway and the Chieftains, Will Ackerman, Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand, Men at Work and INXS.

Both virtuosos, together Hawkins and Daniel make for an incomparable team.

‘To The Wind’ is OUT NOW on Blue Coast Records
Available on SACD and Digital

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Gareth Koch & Martin Kennedy Release Album ‘Music In The Afterlife’

February 3, 2023 Marshall Cullen

“Brian Eno meets Massive Attack and classical guitarist John Williams”

The idea of an afterlife has fired imaginations across cultures for millennia and is one of the earliest belief systems in recorded history. It is fascinating to consider that a type of identity or stream of consciousness might exist in the absence of the physical body.
In ‘Music In The Afterlife’, Gareth Koch & Martin Kennedy have created a sound world which seeks to convey a continued existence taking place in the spiritual realm, or otherworld. In mythology there are phases through which the consciousness passes before arriving at a reward in the afterlife. The Koch/Kennedy songs, or pieces, reflect imagined states in which the protagonist journeys through the stages of waiting, trance, drifting, resignation & Elysium.

In their debut collaboration Viennese-trained classical musician Gareth Koch & ambient music specialist Martin Kennedy have created a unique sound world. Their compositions weave acoustic & electronic realms into a seamless fabric in which medieval, folk & electronic influences are entwined. If this melange is beginning to sound like an unholy brew nothing could be further from the truth. The pieces are deft, intuitive & hypnotic, drawing the listener into a reflective & profound listening experience.

In what is termed classical music (perhaps more aptly described as western art music) the earliest notated plainchants of around CE930 were centred on spirituality & belief in the afterlife. From this point onwards classical music evolved with a connection to an otherworld or divine, often embracing various mythologies. Ambient music came of age in the twentieth century in the era of electronic synthesisers, but its origin’s date back to French classical music composer Erik Satie. Satie pioneered a genre of music which emphasised tone & atmosphere, providing the ideal sonic environment for contemplation & spiritual reflection.

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Celebrate Christmas with Gareth Koch’s Instrumental Guitar Album

December 14, 2022 Marshall Cullen

Imagine timeless European Christmas music played instrumentally, as if upon a choir of lutes. Ancient & exquisite songs, deep within the human psyche, are now newly arranged by ARIA Award winning guitarist Gareth Koch. The interpretations reveal his signature blend of contemporary flair laced with medieval sensibilities.

The arrangements are both elegant & appealing, sidestepping any notion of commercialised Christmas clichés. Re-imagined as troubadour-like ballads or tender Austrian folk songs, each carol receives a unique treatment. The listener is invited into an array of soundworlds, ranging from the early medieval to English folk-revival.

The music of this album leads us away from the bustle of many modern realities. Instead, we are drawn into a gentler universe, filled with subtlety & nuance. In any year, at any time, this album presents a Christmas message we all need to hear.

Song Descriptions
Little Drummer Boy
This timeless mid-tempo classic Christmas carol is dealt with not just using multiple classical guitar parts but with hand percussion and rice shakers.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
A very old piece, dated to the 16th century and referred to in Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’. Gareth recreates the vocal melody perfectly and becomes a terrific hum along piece. Bass guitar rounds out the arrangement featuring multiple guitars: acoustic, nylon string and electric creating a lush sonic tapestry.

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Darlene Koldenhoven’s new album has reached #1 on the Soundslikecafe instrumental chart

November 27, 2022 Marshall Cullen

GRAMMY® Award Winner and 3 time Nominee Darlene Koldenhoven’s new album ‘Traveling the Blissful Highway’ has been cruising up the Soundslikecafe charts since its release in October and has now hit the number 1 instrumental album spot!!

Not only that but the single ‘Jade Dreams’ is hanging out at number 2 on the overall top 10.

Click below for the chart:

The album also had local Australian articles in Scenestr magazine and Whats My Scene. Darlene was recently interviewed across the pond for Aparna Vats Point of View show on Alive 90.5 fm Sydney.

The chart position isn’t surprising considering these great reviews of the album below:

It is some of the most relaxing and
dreamy music you will have the pleasure of enjoying – a slice of heaven.
– Keith “Muzik Man” Hannaleck, New Age Music Reviews, Founder 7/18/22

The music of “Traveling the Blissful Highway” is colored with many colors, as if you are enthusiastically
leafing through a color album of a wonderful photographer who captured the most beautiful landscapes
that he met on his way. And each new page is even more beautiful… There is sophistication and a lot of the
smallest nuances in its perfect sounding music. A wonderful end to a hard day, bringing peace to the soul
and clearing the mind of worries.
– Serge Kozlovsky, Minsk, Belarus skozlovsky.com 7/30/22

“Traveling the Blissful Highway is an album you will want as your musical companion, to help make your life
joumey a more enjoyable and beautiful discovery. Darlene’s experience and exposure to varied cultures,
countries and traditions have contributed positively to her broad and diverse vision of humanity and our
world which comes through in her musical compositions and especially shines on this album.”
-Lizzette Cascante, Aurelscapes 8/3/22

Travel with Darlene Koldenhoven and her musicians on the blissful highway in her new album that features twelve instrumental tracks including four with her angelic, harmonic vocalese, occasionally used as background instrumentation. All of her compositions and arrangements invite us to go out and see the world and have a good rest at the end of an exquisite day. There are 53:46 minutes of colorful timbres and some nature sounds to keep you balanced, focused, refreshed, and joyfully relaxed. Darlene performs on keyboard synths, creating a culture of calm: half the album has ethnic influences to gently keep you going on the road and half lets you exit to the rest areas. Even when real travel is not in the picture, pack these traveling soundscapes for your inner and outer journey. With this album, the only passport you’ll need for these destination cities – peace, calm, happiness and bliss is your own mindfulness to visit them and the album as your tour guide.

About

GRAMMY® Award Winner and 3 time Nominee, Darlene Koldenhoven is a vocalist, pianist, composer, arranger, lyricist, speaker, and sonic therapist from Studio City, CA, born and raised in Chicago, IL. Her last two albums, “The Grand Piano Spa” and “The Grand Piano Spa: Legacy” debuted on the prestigious Billboard Classical Crossover Charts at #4 and #8, respectively in May & November 2021.

She was inducted to the Indie Music Hall of Fame at the GRAMMY® Museum in 2019 by the Indie Music Channel Awards and the COVR Award hailed her “Chromatones” as Album of the Year a few months later. Several of her albums ranked #1 on the worldwide ZMR Radio Charts and she has 2 Best New Age Vocal Album and Best Holiday Album from ZMR.

Darlene is best known worldwide as the featured soprano in “Yanni, Live at the Acropolis” and for her role as the tambourine-waving choir nun in both “Sister Act” films with Whoopi Goldberg.

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Darlene Koldenhoven Releases New Album ‘Traveling the Blissful Highway’

October 14, 2022 Marshall Cullen

Travel with GRAMMY® Winner and 3 times Nominee Darlene Koldenhoven

Back in the late 1980’s Darlene had some memorable experiences (including a brush with a Roo!) on tour in Australia early in her career

The early days of Darlene’s career include work as a “sideman” in former soap opera star, Gloria Loring’s band. Darlene played synthesizer keyboards and sang background vocals and stepped up front and sing duets with Gloria. “Days of Our Lives” was in full swing in Australia at that time. Touring Australia with Ms. Loring led to several memorable adventures from Sydney to Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and the Gold Coast in August/September of 1987 where it was quite rare to have it rain 48 out of the 50 days they were there. On one of the sunny days, the whole band drove south of Melbourne to the coast to see the 12 Apostles. Darlene cherishes a photograph she took of the waves crashing into them; seen daily in her home in Los Angeles.

On the other sunny day off, at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Darlene was feeding the kangaroos when suddenly, the large grey reared up on his tail, dug his front claws into her back shoulders, and kicked with both back legs on her ‘backside.’ She tried to slowly walk away but the buck was determined and hopped on his tail while still boxing her backside! She yelled, “Get him off, get him off!!!” Finally, Gloria’s music director yelled and rushed at the ‘roo’ and got him off of her. The rest of the tour Darlene had two giant bruises on each cheek and had a difficult time sitting for a while. She said it was the strangest feeling having a larger than herself animal on her back. (Darlene is 5’10’ and short compared to the marsupial on his tail.)

In Perth, Gloria threw out the ball at a championship rugby game and Darlene saw her first rugby match. Darlene was amused by the scrum and flabbergasted that the game went on with players jumping over the player who was down on the active field with a doctor!

Besides the bruises, her return home souvenirs were a few Aboriginal musical instruments she purchased while there: didjeridu, bullroarer, rainstick, clapsticks. On her new upcoming album, “Traveling the Blissful Highway” (10/14/22), Darlene played Australian Aboriginal rainstick. On her very first album, “Keys to the World,” she played the bullroarer and traditional didjeridu. Having been unaware at the time she purchased the instrument, no one mentioned it was considered cultural appropriation for a non-Aboriginal woman to play or touch a didjeridu. Upon recent study, Darlene sincerely apologizes Aboriginal and other groups who consider that taboo and adds that it was only used in a secular setting with great respect.

With the use of Zoom & Skype, Darlene taught voice and sonic therapy to Australian clients during the pandemic and has many fans of her and her music on the continent. She hopes to return someday to perform her own concerts and workshops, enjoying the rich culture of the country.

Nominee Darlene Koldenhoven and her musicians on the blissful highway with her upcoming New Age instrumental album, “Traveling the Blissful Highway”. There are twelve instrumental tracks including four with her angelic, harmonic vocalese, occasionally used as background instrumentation. All of her compositions and arrangements invite us to go out and see the world and have a good rest at the end of an exquisite day. Darlene performs on keyboard synths, creating a culture of calm: half the album has ethnic influences to gently keep you going on the road and half lets you exit to the rest areas. Even when real travel is not in the picture, pack these traveling soundscapes for your inner and outer journey. With this album, the only passport you’ll need for these destination cities – peace, calm, happiness and bliss is your own mindfulness to visit them and the album as your tour guide.

Darlene says, “After being cooped up so long in Los Angeles, I ventured to London, Las Vegas and Denver during the spring this year for some appearances and was so excited to travel again that when I came home, I started writing to process my emotions from it all and I just couldn’t stop! I hope the listener will enjoy the musical adventure and immerse in the sonic benefits from Traveling the Blissful Highway with me.”

About
GRAMMY® Award Winner and 3 time Nominee, Darlene Koldenhoven is a vocalist, pianist, composer, arranger, lyricist, speaker, and sonic therapist from Studio City, CA, born and raised in Chicago, IL. Her last two albums, “The Grand Piano Spa” and “The Grand Piano Spa: Legacy” debuted on the prestigious Billboard Classical Crossover Charts at #4 and #8, respectively in May & November 2021.

This past May & June gifted Darlene with a Lifetime Achievement Award from One World Music Radio and Outstanding Legacy Award from the Akademia Awards. She was inducted to the Indie Music Hall of Fame at the GRAMMY® Museum in 2019 by the Indie Music Channel Awards and the COVR Award hailed her “Chromatones” as Album of the Year a few months later. Several of her albums ranked #1 on the worldwide ZMR Radio Charts and she has 2 Best New Age Vocal Album and Best Holiday Album from ZMR.

Darlene is best known worldwide as the featured soprano in “Yanni, Live at the Acropolis” and for her role as the tambourine-waving choir nun in both “Sister Act” films with Whoopi Goldberg. Ms. Koldenhoven has authored “Tune Your Voice: Singing and Your Mind’s Musical Ear,” a comprehensive music education book with 7 CDs or downloads. She performs her music worldwide.

Darlene Koldenhoven – Travelling the Blissful Highway is Out Now October 14

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Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy Release Single ‘When Time Has Run Out’

October 6, 2022 Marshall Cullen

With echoes of The Wall-era Pink Floyd, ‘When Time Has Run Out’ is the first single from Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy’s new album, ‘The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus’. Steve Kilbey of psych rock legends The Church and writer of magical hit ‘Under The Milky Way’ once again joins forces with Martin Kennedy of atmospheric ambient stalwarts All India Radio for their seventh studio album.

“A sumptuous meeting of Australian soundscaper and the head Churchman… a voice of characterful cool poise and an imaginative lyrical lexicon, Kilbey can make a strong melodic song out of simple elements.” – MOJO

The first single from the new KK album begins with powerful guitars, keys and vocal layers before the drums and bass break in. Soaring electric guitars and strings layers drive this mid-tempo tune along while Kilbey’s iconic and instantly recognizable vocal. A must add to playlists.

In 1981 a teenage Martin Kennedy stumbled upon Steve Kilbey and The Church at Tanelorn, an oddball old world meets new world music festival, and fell in love with their look and sound. He recorded their set on a walkman, and the songs helped spark the beginning of his music career. Just a year before, an equally fresh-faced Steve Kilbey formed The Church in Sydney, the very beginning of their public life as accidental hit makers.

Forty one years later Martin and Steve find themselves working together on their sixth studio album, the epic ‘The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus.’ As ever with these two, the deal is simple: Martin writes the music and Steve writes the words. No argument, no egos, just a matter of pressing the record button. The results are an effective balancing of Kennedy’s haunting and melodic tunes with Kilbey’s mysterious, witty and intelligent lyrics, melded together by his heavenly voice. Martin keeps his teenage love of The Church out of the equation in fear of it skewing his songwriting but it’s there if you listen closely.

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Gareth Koch Releases Single ‘Flamenco Arabe’

June 17, 2022 Marshall Cullen

More sublime Spanish Flamenco Guitar from Australia’s very own Gareth Koch.

Moorish influence in flamenco music goes back thousands of years, but it was the Islamic invasion in 711, that determined the musical influences from North Africa. The Moors and Arabs brought their musical forms to the Peninsula. The Emirate, and later Caliphate of Córdoba became a centre of influence in both the Muslim and Christian worlds where it attracted musicians from all Islamic countries.

This flamenco piece starts with a Tabor drum and includes some bass guitar filling out the lower frequencies. The song evokes a Middle-Eastern as well as a flamenco mood and as always the playing is superb and is a worthy addition to the monthly single releases Gareth is undertaking.

About Gareth Koch

Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a diverse repertory across multiple albums spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects & songwriting. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.

Born in Milan, Koch began his musical studies on piano and clarinet, and at age 12 was accepted into the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before winning a scholarship for advanced guitar study at the Vienna Academy of Music. He holds a PhD in Music.

In 2002 Koch formed what might be termed the first guitar supergroup. Saffire – The Australian Guitar Quartet soared to number 1 on the classical music charts and appeared on the pop charts. The quartet released a total of 3 best-selling albums.

Gareth is involved with many cross genre projects & in 2020 released two collaborative albums with ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kilbey (The Church).

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Gareth Koch Releases Single ‘Soleares Flamenco’

May 4, 2022 Marshall Cullen

Soleares is one of the most profound forms of flamenco, often referred to as the heart & soul of the genre. The mood is solemn & grand & when sung the lyrics are deeply heartfelt. The style originated among the Calé Romani people of Cádiz or Seville in Andalusia. The metre or ‘compás’ of Soleares is one of the most widely used in flamenco & is the foundation style for many flamenco forms. The track was recorded in a single take on a beautiful Ignacio Rozas flamenco guitar, hand-built in Madrid.

Song Description

Tasteful nylon string guitar begins this full sounding flamenco piece. Traditional guitar ‘knocks’ feature here and there on the percussion side. The song is so masterfully played it’s hard to imagine that it is just one guitarist and done in one take.

About Gareth Koch
Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a diverse repertory across multiple albums spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects & songwriting. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.
Born in Milan, Koch began his musical studies on piano and clarinet, and at age 12 was accepted into the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before winning a scholarship for advanced guitar study at the Vienna Academy of Music. He holds a PhD in Music.
In 2002 Koch formed what might be termed the first guitar supergroup. Saffire – The Australian Guitar Quartet soared to number 1 on the classical music charts and appeared on the pop charts. The quartet released a total of 3 best-selling albums.
Gareth is involved with many cross genre projects & in 2020 released two collaborative albums with ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kilbey (The Church).

Soleares Flamenco is OUT NOW – via MGM

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Fiona Joy and Rebecca Daniel – Heavenly Voices – Official

Video March 10, 2022 Marshall Cullen

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Fiona Joy Hawkins and Rebecca Daniel Present Heavenly Voices

March 10, 2022 Marshall Cullen

Australian musicians Fiona Joy Hawkins and Rebecca Daniel team up once again to create a remarkable acoustic new age album titled Heavenly Voices. Recorded and mixed by Grammy-nominated producer Cookie Marenco and released under Marenco’s own label Blue Coast Records, Heavenly Voices sounds close and present. The entirety of the album was performed live in Blue Coast’s Extended Sound Environment (E.S.E.) and recorded straight to DSD256 (1). Expert recording techniques combined with the high definition audio bring to life every rich keystroke and string vibration. Heavenly Voices is a testament to what great musicianship and audio engineering can accomplish.

Pianist Fiona Joy Hawkins has won several awards including Album of the Year by Zone Music Rewards, Best New Age Album by Independent Music Rewards, and her song “Grace” was featured on a Grammy Award winning album in 2014 (2). Violinist Rebecca Daniel has performed around the world. The Australian Chamber Orchestra in Sydney invited her to join their ranks where she held duties as the Orchestra Leader for several of their productions (3). Both virtuoso in their own right, together Hawkins and Daniel make for an incomparable team.

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Hawkins’ pensive piano playing lays the foundation for Daniel’s expressive violin work. Listeners will become immersed in the evocative melodies and harmonies, where the piano and violin have their own emotions that they wish to convey. Tracks such as “Sugar Plum Ghost,” “The Lightness of Dark,” and the title song “Heavenly Voices” also feature Hawkins’ and Daniel’s voices, adding a greater ethereal element. Though every part was performed live, much of the album sounds other-worldly, as though Hawkins and Daniel are pulling back the curtain to reveal a glimpse into the afterlife. In a way, Heavenly Voices is a lament. It evokes feelings of grief and loss, though not without a ray of hope, as if the very impermanence that causes our mourning is also the source of beauty upon which we gaze.

Expertly crafted in composition, performance, and production, Heavenly Voices is an album that fans of contemporary classical music will not want to miss. We’re sure once you hear the music this will be a MUST HAVE!

This is how the piano and violin were meant to sound!

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Tag Archives: ambient

Fiona Joy Hawkins and Rebecca Daniel Release Album ‘To The Wind’