A Calmer Panorama

This is an ambient album in the best sense of the word; flautist Tim Wheater combines nature sounds (birds, brook), gentle synth environments, and flutes to create a soothing, spiritual, and classy environment suitable for massage, relaxation, meditation, or background music. Of the album's two pieces — "Shower" and "Fall" — "Shower" is the brighter, with sounds a little more sparkling with its wind chimes, birds, and hypnotic eddies of crystalline sounds (like an "aum"); a loon calls out occasionally, matching tone with the shakuhachi flute. "Fall" features rounder, warmer, and heavier sounds. The shakuhachi flute seems to question, the silver flute calms, and a lower flute puffs out support like a fog horn. This dynamic interplay in a garden of birds, chimes, and crickets keeps the piece very interesting if you care to pay attention to the melodies and not get swept away in some meditative state. Wheater's dreamy Zen album shows a lot of heart and sophistication.