Ice Flowers Melting: Music For Kantele, The Finnish Folk Zither

Track Listings

1. Joy Like a River

2. Chimes for Snow Melting

3. Rainpiece

4. Finnish Church Bells

5. D Minor Melody

6. Empty Moon

Ice Flowers Melting: Music For Kantele, The Finnish Folk Zither,Sylvan Grey,Fortuna Records,Ethnic Fusion,International,Neo-Classical

Ice Flowers Melting: Music For Kantele, The Finnish Folk Zither

Average customer rating:

Interminable Inner Journeying

Plucky Repetition in Flat Repose

Ice Flowers Melting: Music For Kantele, The Finnish Folk Zither
Sylvan Grey
Manufacturer: Fortuna Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | International | Styles | Music
General | New Age | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Recurring Dream

Northern Light: Celtic and Scandinavian Music on Harp and Finnish Kantele

ASIN: B000BGQRN2
Release Date: 2005-09-09

Tracks:

Joy Like A River 6'12"
Chimes For Snow Melting 5'33"
Rainpiece 12'36"
Finnish Church Bells 6'03"
D Minor Melody 3'23"
Empty Moon 27'33"

Product Description

The simplicity of this music is precarious, crystal-like, resonant. On the kantele, the folk zither of Finland, Sylvan Grey performs her original works, composed to give full play to the unique possibilities of this exquisite instrument. Elements of Western and Eastern classical tradition are brought together in fluid, distinctive music as thin and clear as high mountain air. This recording represents the true sound of the kantele with minimal electronic processing. The resonance and richness are that of the instrument rather than that of the studio.

Customer Reviews:

Interminable Inner Journeying.......2007-06-05

Sylvan Grey is one of the world's greatest musicians. The relatively obscure instrument she plays, the Kantele, demands so much from the player that very few musicians in the world would attempt such an extended solo recital as we have here, even if some degree of mastery had been attained. To describe the Kantele as a Zither is somewhat misleading because of the connotations that far more basic versions of that instrument have in America. Really, this multi-stringed instrument produces a rich harplike sound, the registers of the chords are quite dense, with harpsicord-like timbres, producing long resonances when struck, which overlap in the magnificent progressions Grey develops. Grey's music is exceedingly complex, intricate, multi-layered, deeply thought and felt, and painstakingly conceived.
"Ice Flowers" was Grey's brilliant 1981 debut recording, only one of two recordings she has released in the past quarter century! Yes. That's the testimony to how seriously this virtuoso artist takes her music.
This recording is perfect "in the car". If you're muddling through a snowstorm, or rainstorm, or slowly progressing on a long journey, there is really no more appropriate disk, for this deeply reflective music seems to record the long flow of the sequences of endless inner journeying which comprise our lives. We don't quite know where we're heading, but we are assured of reaching some further end.
I would therefore advise first listening to this remarkable disk in your vehicle on a long drive before sitting down with it at home. Let yourself be held captive to this spellbinding statement of a true master.
One of the all time greatest "new age" performances, all sounds being produced, blissfully, without any help from electronic instruments or synthesizing devices.

Plucky Repetition in Flat Repose.......2006-07-27

I returned this. It sounded interesting on the soundbytes- made me want to hear more- contemplative I hoped, kaleidoscoping simple strings with great moments but it doesn't change enough or bring emotions from me deeply or passionately. There were no climaxes. It's very repetitive and drawn out. The titles and picture are pretty but I didn't feel much of Finland or transported anywhere but perhaps to be more careful in the sensibility to try for other cultures' music to know them better and enjoy. I was intrigued, then bored and annoyed- and the marketplace seller got annoyed and arrogant towards me for returning it. I think the things titled for are more interesting, alive, and spirited than evocated. Maybe as far as zithers go, it's expert technically but it seemed too much one pace also, like a Japanese instrument never slowed enough to appreciate.

Pop Music:

Recommended Music:

Music: Kathy Walker Band

Trouble With Girls

Solo Salsa

The Very Best of Jane Monheit

Sir Edward Elgar: Symphony No.1/Pomp and Circumstance Marches No.1 & No.2

The Jealous Kind [Enhanced]

Time To Travel

The Treasury Shows, Vol. 9 [Live]

Thought Lines

The Underground Sounds of Australia

Evgeny Kissin Plays Chopin

Berlin