Tag Archives: fiona joy

800pix-4 FLOW retouched final copy

Flow with their self titled Debut Album

FLOW: A DYNAMIC NEW AGE IN MUSIC

Will Ackerman, Fiona Joy Hawkins, Lawrence Blatt and Jeff Oster Take a Open Approach to Musical Discovery, Embracing Friendship While Building Organic Songs for their eponymous new release–FLOW.

1000pix2 FLOW retouched copy

Forty years after Windham Hill became a catalyst for the global musical phenomenon, its bountiful legacy of best-selling solo works (George Winston, Liz Story, Alex DeGrassi, Michael Hedges) and Grammy-winning ensembles (Shadowfax)–extends into a truly new age with FLOW–a new four-piece ensemble comprised of Ackerman and three of today’s most acclaimed independent artists, Australian pianist Fiona Joy Hawkins, acoustic guitarist Lawrence Blatt and flugelhorn master Jeff Oster. All in, FLOW members have accumulated literally dozens of accolades, from GRAMMY® Awards, ZMRs, IMAs, IAMAs and a catalog of #1 albums in the genre.

FLOW, on Blatt’s LMB Music label, came together to record deep in the West River Valley in Southern Vermont, at Imaginary Road Studios, the longtime creative home base of legendary Grammy-winning acoustic guitarist Will Ackerman, the original founder of Windham Hill; the 282-acre property in Windham County has become a hotbed of acoustic excellence over the past 25 years.

Ackerman shared his thoughts on the process of recording with FLOW, saying – “There was a moment in the process of making FLOW with Fiona, Lawrence and Jeff when I felt a hint of panic that my pieces were being altered and transformed into something very different from what I would have done with them on a Will Ackerman record. It was in the moment just after this thought that I realized that FLOW was actually working… that I was experiencing real synergy. The group had become a creative entity unto itself and four dear friends had gathered to create something beyond anything they could have created on their own.Experiments don’t always work. This one worked!?”

1000pix3 FLOW retouched by srs

As officially announced, the concept of FLOW had its origins in 2015, when Blatt invited Fiona and Oster to join him at Imaginary Road to create an album inspired by the iconic Windham Hill sound and ensembles. Ackerman had already produced several of Fiona Joy Hawkin’s and Oster’s albums plus Blatt’s recordings The Color of Sunshine, Emergence, and Latitudes and Longitudes featuring Oster on horn; Blatt and Fiona met while recording a special project on Blue Coast Music.

Oster remembers that each of them brought two or three songs to the project to which they added their parts under the guidance of Ackerman’s longtime production partner at Imaginary Road, Tom Eaton. The group likens Eaton’s multi-faceted role in the success of the project as that of The Fifth Beatle.

Reflecting on FLOW’s debut project, Oster says, “If you look back into any time of human existence, this need for peaceful breathing and listening has always and will always be deeply important. It’s not only New Age music, it is EVERY AGE music!”

FLOW made their official debut with an album release celebration at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on October 6, 2017. The group is booking concert dates this Spring, including a featured performance at the Zone Music Awards on Saturday May 12th at Roussell Hall in New Orleans; they are nominated for both Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.

FLOW Cvr actual size hi rez

AXS Review

“By Sari Cohen”

“These are four musicians who are all self-sufficient in their talents. They’re brilliant at making albums that are unique and musically successful as soloists. The lovely surprise is that they, we, all managed with grace and ease to come together and create something new and different from anything any of us had ever done before,” Grammy-winner Will Ackerman explains.

World Music Central Review

“By Angel Romero”

Flow is a supergroup of musicians who have been involved with New Age music for many years. The term New Age is used to describe a wide range of genres, from easy listening acoustic music to electronic meditation music. In this case, Flow performs peaceful and ethereal instrumental music with smooth jazz, folk, gliding ambient sounds and classical music elements.

Website Link

https://www.flowthegroup.com/

Link to USA Tour Dates and Tickets

FLOW hope to tour Australia at select locations in 2019

unnamed

Fiona Joy (AUS)

Fiona Joy New Album “Signature – Synchronicity” Available NOW

UPDATE: Fiona’s previous album “Signature – Solo” has won the ZMR Award for Best Solo Piano Album! To get a copy of the album click the link below: https://itunes.apple.com/signature-solo

 

Fiona Joy’s much anticipated new album “Signature – Synchronicity” is now available!

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/signature-synchronicity/id1074110022

Bandcamp: https://fionajoy.bandcamp.com

Signature – Synchronicity is the perfect bookend to Fiona Joy’s 2015 project ‘Signature-Solo’, which spent several months in the coveted #1 spot on the ZMR Airplay Charts and released in numerous formats via Blue Coast Records, a pioneering audiophile label. Along with the new album, Fiona presents several high-quality videos, visual memes, and pre-order perks all accessible via her website at www.FionaJoy.com.

Fiona originally imagined the project as a personal expression of how the deteriorating “signature” bone in her left hand was affecting her ability to share her life’s work.  This evolved into modern fairytales that feature magic, imagination and the world we escape into.

It’s interesting to grow up through your own music,” Fiona Joy says. “The early albums are about my own life, drawing on the past. Mostly this album is looking outside myself and exploring other subjects – in this case, fairy tale themes – and yet somehow they all come back to my own experience. It’s a circular thing…truly Synchronicity.”

This album was recorded and produced with the team at Imaginary Road Studios in Vermont and many of Fiona’s favorite instrumentalists; some recording was also done at Crash Symphony Productions in Sydney. One of the many highlights of the recording process for Fiona was the opportunity to record on an Australian-made Stuart & Sons piano. A few people Fiona found herself lucky enough to work with include producer Will Ackerman (Founder Windham Hill), Tom Eaton, and James Englund. Additionally, the album features artists such as Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel), Rebecca Daniel (Ex ACO), Marc Shulman (Suzanne Vega), Eugene Friesen (Paul Winter Consort), Jeff Haynes (Pat Metheny), Jeff Oster, Paul Jarmin, Premik Tubbs, Borbala Bodonyi, her son Nick Hawkins, and many others.

Looking forward to all the fresh possibilities, travels and creative adventures of the coming year, Fiona Joy – embodies the glorious cover art of Signature – Synchronicity – running wildly into the embrace of her second decade of recording and touring.
“One of the brightest lights in the contemporary instrumental genre,
Fiona Joy Hawkins is poised to move into stardom and we have only to watch to see it happen”

- Will Ackerman (Founder Windham Hill Records)
Check out the five NEW videos.

GRACE- Youtube Video 

CEREMONY – Youtube Video

ONCE UPON IMPOSSIBLE – Youtube Video

GRACE (Chill Version) – Youtube Video

CALLING EARTH – Youtube Video

And upcoming Launches to include – 
This April sees a unique concert and film viewing for the official album release of Signature – Synchronicity by Fiona Joy at Burwood Music Centre in Melbourne for both the public and media. BMC is a recording studio that also has a small state of the art film theatre. Meet members of the production team involved in the project, the film-makers, the piano maker, and the piano producer. Award winning Australian artist Fiona Joy will perform tracks from her new album Signature – Synchronicity.

Along with three performances across the action packed weekend, the album reveal also features videos of six of the songs made by four different filmmakers. Of the filmmakers is a retired NASA Senior Flight Engineer who used NASA footage to bring Fiona’s song ‘Calling Earth’ to life. The event also includes a meet and greet with Wayne Stuart of world renown Australian Stuart & Sons pianos – the inventors of a revolutionary new piano design used in classical concerts all over the world.

The Events:
1. Saturday April 30th - Early afternoon. Watch the video clips, chat with the piano maker (Wayne Stuart), the producer (James Englund), the film-makers (four companies) Including NASA and ISS Footage, and a private concert opportunity with Fiona Joy.

2.  Saturday April 30th - Evening cocktail event. Watch the videos, meet the filmmakers, the piano maker, and the piano producer.
3. Sunday May 1st – Mid-afternoon Matinee concert and video viewing. Additionally, there will be a fundraiser for Motor Neuron Disease.
Media are invited to all of the above but specifically to the Saturday afternoon
Please contact below if you would like to attend as seating is limited.

Each event has only 32 seats available-tickets here

 

“Fiona Joy is a TRUE artist, constantly growing, Signature – Synchronicity is the latest expression of her prodigious talent, I urge you to check it out.”
- Bob Ludwig, Gateway Mastering