Lillian
New member
I like Native American wood flute playing mixed with other instrumentation and Joseph L Young from Idaho gives us that and much more on his album, Ethereum. He also plays clay flutes from South and Central America, the Anasazi flute, the Irish pennywhistle which apparently is not a whistle at all but a flute, the Chinese xiao flute (don’t ask me how to pronounce that one) and some modern flute based on the mathematical Phi formula (perhaps a bit too complex for my comprehension). I am not sure any of that really matters, and I am not sure whether I could even differentiate between the flutes. All I know for sure is that I like Young’s sound. He generally plays soft and slow, which is the way I prefer my flute music. And he backs the flutes with lots of synth drone to provide the underlayment. Then he mixes in unusual stringed instruments like the Chinese erhu, the folky hammered dulcimer and the strums of a Celtic harp. He throws in some percussion and, on one cut, a saxophone (the instrument he got his start on in the music business). And a good time was had by all.
The first track (“Wavelength”) is a bit misleading because it is very ethereal (hence the album title apparently) and ambient, but many of the other pieces have lovely little melodies primarily stated by the flute assortment. “Illumination” has some piano, “Entangled” is the one with sax dueting with a flute (plus Indian tom-toms), “Flirting With Fireflies” sounds like it has one of those modern hang flyingsaucer drums on it, and there are some very faint ooh and ahh vocals scattered here and there.
This is a very pleasurable album for anyone who likes ethnic flutes especially Native American ones encapsulated in a sort of new age world overall sound. You can buy the CD or downloadable tracks online at the standard sales sites.
The first track (“Wavelength”) is a bit misleading because it is very ethereal (hence the album title apparently) and ambient, but many of the other pieces have lovely little melodies primarily stated by the flute assortment. “Illumination” has some piano, “Entangled” is the one with sax dueting with a flute (plus Indian tom-toms), “Flirting With Fireflies” sounds like it has one of those modern hang flyingsaucer drums on it, and there are some very faint ooh and ahh vocals scattered here and there.
This is a very pleasurable album for anyone who likes ethnic flutes especially Native American ones encapsulated in a sort of new age world overall sound. You can buy the CD or downloadable tracks online at the standard sales sites.