This is meditation
music much in the "New Age"
ethic but with a Roman Catholic focus.
Organist Togni (track 1) was official
organist for the Papal Visit to Vancouver,
Canada in 1984. The other instrumentalists
achieve very smooth, sweet sonority
and make use of long sustained notes
interacting harmonically, or textures,
or rambling phrases somewhat in the
style of instrumental plainchant. Clarinettist
Reilly certainly has Herculean breath
control to achieve such long controlled
lines and attains considerable variety
in the sounds and textures of his instrument.
Cellist Both likewise plays very expressively
and with a variety of tones and textures
(Track 6).
Numbers 1, 2, 5, and
8 are based on actual plainchant, with
Numbers 9 and 12 based on popular tunes
(track 12). There are no natural sounds,
such as rain or running water, and almost
no motion, harmonic or otherwise.
I must confess that
although I am not hostile to this sort
of music, or to the idea of background
music in general, and in fact recently
reviewed very favourably David and Steve
Gordon’s "Garden of Serenity
II" this disk did not impress
me. For me the best thing about the
whole album was the very artistically
done photographs of the Scottish abbey.
My thought is that if you had attended
a live Sanctuary concert this disk would
make a nice memento, but it is difficult
to approach this music "cold"
without the setting and concert ambience.
Paul Shoemaker