The Healing Music Project: A Collection of the World's Foremost Sound Healers

Rating:
Summary: Meditation and healing - good vibes
Review: The Relaxation Company's Healing Music Project CD is aptly named "Bliss" because of the soothing and pleasant atmosphere it creates. It would be perfect for massage or yoga and puts the listener into a relaxed and calm mental state.

The first number is called "Journey" but the entire album is a sort of Journey into various mediative and healing states. All of the composers are healing practitioners or experienced musicians who know how to create a mood, and the album is consistent and tasteful.

Two numbers by Brian Scott Bennett, a movie score composer, are more symphonic, especially the first one, which evokes happy memories. As you hear passages repeat, you feel like you've been there before, and the circular composition makes you feel as though you are on a circular path, an interesting technique for reminding us of the spiral nature of consciousness.

Many of the other pieces sound as though the musicians recorded them while they were in a medicative state, which really comes out in the music. The piece by Larraji (Edward L. Gordon) is particularly meditative, with a zither which cascades throughout the piece like falling water or waves.

Cesar Belanga has a piece on the CD which is like a beautiful guitar suite, punctuated with bird calls.

David Darling's piece, although more traditional harmonically and structurally, is still very new age and meditational, with a wonderful denouement which definitely took me into a state of relaxation.

The last three numbers were not as interesting as the first six, but still contribute to a very good set of healing music. The last song in particular used dissonance to succesfully create a harmonic resolution.