Buzz Music

Exquisite, Gentle, Relaxing, Meditative…

One of the great things about music is the discovery of new artists and new albums that appear and stun us with their beauty. This happened to me again recently when I heard Peaceful Being by multi-instrumentalist Richard Noll. You can tell from the title (and the serene lake-mountains-sky scene on the cover) that this is probably going to be new age music, but this is exquisite, right-in-the-pocket new age music that reminds us of all the reasons why we enjoy this genre. It is peaceful, gentle, relaxing, meditative and spiritual. It has a combination of acoustic, natural instruments (wood-recorder-flute, viola, piano) and synthesizer (sounding like a synth sometimes, but also like tabla, percussion, gamelan and more), an electronic wind instrument sounding like two flutes dueting, and real female-and-male vocals singing wordlessly like a couple more instruments but with that human quality.

This is a perfect balance that we find in the best new age music. In addition, Noll plays the wood-recorder-flute in a Native American style on five tunes giving the whole recording a bit of an Indian-on-a-spirit-quest-on-top-of-a-mountain feeling. It is appropriate since Noll lived in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, area for 33 years and absorbed a bit of the Pueblo and Hopi cultures while there.

The music seems to have been inspired by either nature (“Calling The Rain,” “Early Spring,” “Nightfall”), love (“Open Heart) or meditation/spirituality (“Grace,” “Peaceful Being,” “Inner Journey,” “Invocation”). Noll has studied Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, yoga, meditation and mysticism. He spent some time in an ashram and performed music there. He says he specifically created this music to inspire, uplift and nourish a listener; to be supportive of the listener during times of reflection and inner process; as background for yoga and meditation; or to be used during massage or other bodywork sessions. Upon listening it becomes obvious that this music is right on the money for those types of uses.

My favorites are the simplest: the solo recorder-flute on “Invocation” or the recorder-flute intertwining its sound with two violas on “Nightfall.”

Darrell Lynn Jones, Author: Becoming Myself: A Soul Journey with Chronic Illness and Disability

Haunting and hypnotic…

The Noll family musical offerings continue to grow and after decades of drinking from the well of their bounty, I find myself enchanted again – this time by Richard Noll’s debut album Peaceful Being. My love affair with Singing Heart Productions has been food for my soul, but Richard’s album seems almost too mature to be his first collection of original compositions. True, he has been a co-creator and support for his wife Shaina’s formidable body of work over many years. Now he brings his own talents center stage. Peaceful Being not only pleases my ear and my heart, it brings me home. The album has now become a staple for my early mornings to center my energies before facing the world again.

Whether for relaxation, emotional cleansing, or a moment of transcendence, the haunting and hypnotic qualities of Peaceful Being lure me to keep coming back for more.

www.becoming-myself.com