Lillian
New member
Russell Suereth plays or re-creates numerous instruments -- both classical and from around the world -- on his third album, Spiritual Haven, an almost-all-instrumental recording. It is an amazing blend of instruments such as the woodwind family (oboe, bassoon, duduk) mixed with other world music instruments that have been around for thousands of years (the koto from Japan, the guzheng from China, the marimba and krin from Africa, the duduk and oud from the Mideast). But what is even more interesting is the way these instruments are played. Virtually everything becomes a rhythm instrument, even the piano, but especially the marimba (a xylophone-type item). The pitter-patter percussion on almost every tune is fairly fast and aggressive while the rest of the sounds tend to be mellow, restive instead of festive, and gentle. The best category for this music is new age with world flavor. While melodies (especially with the woodwinds or a cello or French horn) meander in and out of these pieces, a big percentage of the time the tunes rely on the rhythms to carry it while the lead instruments wander into ambient territory. Very strange, but not un-appealing. There is no notation on the CD about whether Suereth plays all or some of these instruments, or whether he recreates their sounds via synthesized equipment. But either way the instrumentation is quite well-done. There also are some sounds-of-life mixed in -- crickets, birds on one track, and the sound of people living in a village on two others. This album is recommended for the adventurous who like delving into new and unusual sounds.