Quiet Heart/Spirit Wind [2 CD]

Quiet Heart/Spirit Wind [2 CD]

Time will not stand still as you listen to the bamboo and alto flute music of Richard Warner, but it will seem far less relevant as your mind gradually adjusts to the spaciousness and generous silences that adorn the extended notes found in Warner's ethereal improvisations. Urban dwellers should allow themselves a few moments of deep-breathing decompression to detach themselves from their multi- tasking mindsets before tuning in Warner's slow-motion sonic excursions. Otherwise, you may find his music at first to be oddly jarring, so peaceful and gentle is his playing. Yoga adherents and massage enthusiasts should find much to admire in this two-CD set, a remastered repackaging of two releases from 1982's <I>Quiet Heart</I> and 1984's <I>Spirit Wind</I>. The double CD includes four new selections, bringing the set's combined playing time to more than 93 minutes. On the wooden floors beneath giant vaulted ceilings in Seattle's Holy Names Academy, Warner first performed solo, then returned two years later to play with minimal accompaniment from tuned crystal glasses. Both projects, particularly <I>Spirit Wind</I>, succeed by achieving and sustaining moods of stillness and restful clarity that, while well-suited to yoga ideals, can also be appreciated away from the mat. Meditative flute music has the potential to strike Occidental ears as shrill, discordant, brittle, or exotic to the point of distraction. Not so with Warner's projects. He typically avoids piercing high notes and prefers to explore tones in a comfortable mid-range that allow his ambient works, most notably <I>Spirit Wind</I>'s 18-minute "Moonlight on the Mountain," to sustain a lovely atmosphere of undisturbed calm. <I>--Terry Wood</I>