VA: Focus Zone - Music for Studying
Mindful Music Records

The title of this expansive collection from musician members of the Chicago-based Mindful Music Association could be taken in two ways. Does it mean its two hours-plus of material is designed to function as background for students doing homework or that the music is intended to encourage attention at a deeper level of mindfulness? Press text included with the release states that the pieces “were chosen to help with focus and concentration for the listener,” which seems to support the latter interpretation. No matter: the music presented on the release is without exception splendid and further to that surely fulfils its other related goals, to optimize health, induce calm, and foster a sense of well-being. All praise to the contributors too, who donated their music for use in the release and also provided financial support.

Many a participant will be familiar to New Age aficionados, with Tom Eaton, Lynn Tredeau, and Meg Bowles among those involved. Of course, with twenty-eight selections on offer, space prohibits discussion of each one, but a representative account of the material should suffice to convey the character of the release. Acoustic guitarist Ryan Judd and cellist Kristen Miller set the tone with the heartfelt duet “Innocence Lost” (from his Soaring Together release) and beautiful sounds continue thereafter without pause. Eaton brings his signature gift for delicate sound painting to “Where Clouds Are Born,” as soothing and serene an evocation as might be imagined. Bowles' “The Ridgewalker” induces a dreamlike state as her ambient meditation advances, its washes blossoming in slow-motion like a flower.

Sequenced intermittently are moving solo piano meditations by Lynn Tredeau (“A Drop in the Ocean”), Robin Spielberg (“A Walk Between Raindrops”), Tiffany Hobson (“When Night Rolls In”), Christopher Boscole (“Simply You”), Ed Bazel (“Sweet Innocence”), and Monica Logani (“Storyteller”). Other pieces are more elaborately orchestrated. In “Humility” (from the concept album Mandala, which expresses “twelve truths” musically), Eric Bikales adorns acoustic piano with bass tones and sultry synth atmospheres, the arrangement in essence transforming the piece from a solo instrument statement to ensemble-styled New Age setting. Whereas Lisa Pressman envelops intimate piano playing in “Perfect Calm” with ethereal vocalese and washes of strings and synths, Joseph L Young backs soulful flute playing with a painterly backdrop of strings, harp, and percussion. A jazzier, World Music-like vibe emerges in Jon Durant's “Soul of a River” in its ear-catching blend of fretless guitar, piano, and hand drums.

One of the standouts is Hans Christian's “Musical Prayer,” on which he uses live-looping to build his cello playing into a gorgeous prayer-like expression. Plucked patterns and emotive bowed phrases work in tandem to produce a gracefully lilting statement of uncommon beauty. As affecting is Lisa Swerdlow's “Listening From the Heart” for the yearning ache its lyrical piano melodies impart, and with her lovely waltz-styled homage “October in Paris,” pianist Pam Asberry adds a rather Satie-esque tone to the collection.

From his album Beyond the Clearing, Robert Linton's contemplative “Aside the River Bend” impresses for its melding of acoustic guitar picking and string textures, and Paul Adams' “Awakening” (from Deeper Imaginings) stands out for its rubato-like flow of sitar and dobro interactions. Neil Tatar's aptly titled “Breeze in Blue” blows in like the freshest of southerly breezes when its folk acoustic guitar playing's joined by subtle dabs of soprano sax. An intense flute dialogue between Al Jewer and Joanne Lazzaro animates “Tree Line,” with the latter also simulating bird calls using ocarina.

August 2021