Monet’s Garden from Soundings of the Planet
Soundings of the Planet
https://soundings.com/
Claude Monet’s house and garden is located in Giverny, France, and these recordings were inspired there to musically describe and depict the presence of the water lily pond, Japanese bridge, the flower gardens and more. Field recordings of birds were made in and around the home and gardens of Claude Monet, and some more of the music was recorded later in their studio. These recordings combine flutes and birds with autoharp, harp, synthesizer, and meditation bowls. The feeling is of persistent wisdom and appreciation for the wonderment of life outdoors, ‘en plein air.’
Dean and Dudley Evenson have been making music together since 1968, generating over 80 albums and videos as well collaborating with outstanding musicians from around the world, to create music and video that heals and uplifts, while also videotaping the emerging consciousness of the era. In 1979, they founded Soundings of the Planet as a way to share a message of healing and nature through their music.
Rising like a dragonfly from the surface of the pond and searching forever, the flute expresses freely-brushed colors that take precedence over fixed lines and contours, and with the harp, the sound emphasizes shapes and forms at the edge of the place where the day meets the world under the water. “Water Lily Nymphs” (6:01) establishes the journey and path of this album, where the artists have sought to express their perceptions of nature, rather than create exact representations.
Weaving a story of magic and sunshine, flute, harp and bowls combine to rapture and mystery on the walkway through the conservatory of botanical delights, “Enchanted Garden Path” (5:22). Harp floats and flute flitters, the iridescent play of sunshine in a “Field of Flowers” (4:57), the sky is lazy, huge with breezes and bouncing papillons with the polychromatic blossoming sentinels of the season. Music can often resemble a snapshot, a part of a larger reality captured as if by chance.
In “Pond Reflections” (5:38), the water is both a home for koi and a mirror for the garden, these worlds exist simultaneously, reflections of the world above and hints of the world below the surface. The synthesizer and autoharp swirl slowly while the flute constantly explores the play of natural light, shadows are boldly captured, and compared with the blue of the sky as it is reflected onto surfaces, giving a sense of freshness previously not represented in studio recordings.
Forming a shelter of shadows next to the water’s edge, long thin leaves wait for the gliding breezes to ruffle the canopy of various greens and yellows, “Cascading Willows” (5:38). Harp is met with the subtle synthesizer to greet the birdcalls behind the gentle flute. The trembling of leaves, the shimmer of water, and the vibration of sun-drenched air, with the idea that the shadow captures a fleeting moment out in the open air.
For the final track we have “Evening in Giverny” (4:44), the little village up the road. In twilight blends the mundane normal daily modern life with the entrance of the village to the wood, and the Seine Oise Marne which lies beyond. The flute and harp tell the story of a day spent exploring the old gardens built by the master of illumination and exotic delights. Sleep and dreams remain, sometimes imagining the tones of the evening to produce effets de soir-the shadowy effects of evening or twilight.
The term Impressionism has been used to describe a technique of using only a few select details that suffice to convey the sensory impressions of an incident or scene. In this era when the robust technology of the recording studio is used as palette and easel, these two intrepid artists have brought their simple microphones into the countryside together to make music in the open air, thus they have developed new techniques specific to an art of immediacy and movement, of candid poses and compositions, of the play of life expressed in a bright and varied use of musical color to capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by making music outdoors. They use short studies of mixed and pure unmixed sonic color to achieve an effect of intense color vibration, and thus to appear more vivid to the listener.
MONET’S GARDEN is a refreshing tribute to the Impressionist Claude Monet and the many creative insights he brought to our lives. The musicians Dudley and Dean Everson, blending music, nature and spirituality as the primary threads with which to weave the fabric of this life, to fulfill their vision of “Peace Through Music,” which remains the Soundings of the Planet company motto. Their beautiful, peaceful music brings together their instrumental gifts, blended with recordings of natural sounds-streams, bird-songs, wind, ocean waves-continuing to define the constantly emerging New Age musical genre.
TRACKS
Water Lily Nymphs
Wisteria Foot Bridge
Golden Tones
Splendid Irises
Water Garden
Spring Impressions
Enchanted Garden Path
Field of Flowers
Pond Reflections
Cascading Willows
Play of Light
Evening in Giverny
Soundings of the Planet channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZAi6UBcmx75iSdn1SjmNFA
Soundings of the Planet
https://soundings.com/
Originally published at https://ello.co.
