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review by Dene Bebbington Fans of new age music will doubtless have heard of Stephen Rhodes who has several albums on the New World label, including some specifically for healing. The title of this album gives away the theme pretty well - it's a musical journey into the world of Faeries. On the back of the CD we're told that this music will "heighten self-awareness" and help one put worldly cares into perspective. Well, I don't think it did much to my self-awareness but it is a fairly pleasant and relaxing album. The structure of the music on Faeries and Dreams is such that it gives the listener a feeling of being on a journey, its gently flowing compositions conjure up an image of being on a boat drifting along a slowly flowing river through a magical land. I have to say that even though I enjoyed parts of this album, for me it was more like being on a meandering river. Clocking in at a little over an hour this musical journey is spread across nine tracks, none of which is over ten minutes long. Many of the tracks are melodic in an understated calm way, though in places I feel that the music loses its way - hence the idea of a meandering river. There's a nice mix of piano and synths (and probably an organ) used to create the music, but it's not the kind of album where the piano leads and the synths are just for background padding. Some tracks -- "Peace" comes to mind -- are played solely on synths (and possibly organ) giving them an almost ambient quality in places. Overall this is a nice album; it's worth getting hold of by those people who like to keep a good supply of easygoing music to put on as background or to help relax. |
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