Moonlight Meditations by Allen Bruce Ray
A year of on-again, off-again work throughout 2012 allowed me to deliver my third release, "Moonlight Meditations". Two things that have long captured my imagination - our nearest heavenly neighbor known as Luna and the ethereal sounds of the Native American-style flute - are brought together here for your contemplation and enjoyment. The original idea was for a one-hour journey at a steady tempo that featured only low-to-mid-range Native American-style flutes and some simple frame drums. As the pieces found their shape, that notion expanded to include a Stephen Roberts "bass giant" B minor tongue drum, Native American shakers and rattles, and a subtle backdrop that includes sounds from a variety of VSTi software synthesizers as well as my own recordings of summer "peeper" sounds from northeast Ohio in 2010. While not strictly "meditation" music in the commonly understood sense, there is an overall peaceful mood throughout. All the tracks flow along at 60 bpm in waltz time. The pieces link to one another seamlessly, so you are encouraged to download and listen to the entire work as one continuous experience. All of tracks 2 and 4 and the last portion of track 3 are spontaneous improvisations done in Wonju, Korea specifically for this project. The rest were derived from earlier improvisations that were performed in Chuncheon, Korea and Tres Piedras, New Mexico, all of which can be found in various forms on my YouTube channel.
The Native American-style flutes used and the corresponding track numbers for each are as follows:
1: High Spirits F# minor contrabass: http://www.highspirits.com
2: Stephen DeRuby EZ-Anasazi G minor: http://www.deruby.com
3-1: Kuzin Bruce low A minor: http://kuzinbruceflutes.tripod.com/id2.html
3-2: Stephen DeRuby EZ-Anasazi A minor: http://www.deruby.com
4: Stephen DeRuby EZ-Anasazi B-flat minor: http://www.deruby.com
5: Laughing Crow low B minor: http://www.laughingcrow.com
6: High Spirits Condor C minor: http://www.highspirits.com
7: Laughing Crow D minor drone: http://www.laughingcrow.com
8: Kuzin Bruce E minor drone: http://kuzinbruceflutes.tripod.com/id2.html
9: Jonah Thompson F# minor: (tuned to F natural) http://www.laughingcrow.com/jonah_thompson_native_american_flutes.html
10: Quiet Bear F# minor: http://www.quietbearflutes.com
Tracklist
Credits
All music written, arranged, performed, recorded, edited, and produced by Allen Bruce Ray
License
All rights reserved.
Bruce has been serenading enraptured audiences of birds, trees, & insects and bouncing sounds around the mountains and inner walls of various concrete tunnels, mostly in South Korea, ever since the Native American flute first beckoned him in 2007. Oh yes, and he also plays to fellow human beings all around the world via YouTube.