Caltrops - No Stairway to Heaven

Forum Overview :: No Stairway to Heaven

by William H. Hayt, Jr. 10/19/2004, 4:55pm PDT

A lot of downtempo is pretty in that sterile way. My favorite is Bonobo, who is so smooth as to border on glassy-eyed. Brian Eno's Apollo and the Music for Films albums (three of them) are filled with gentle melodies that tug on whatever heart strings our kind has left. Jóhann Jóhannsson has one album. Look it up, I'm going to fail to describe it properly. Penguin Cafe Orchestra can easily satisfy a lot of your cravings with innovative chamber compositions that are barely tied to anything I've heard before. If you have't heard Chopin for some reason... Well you need to do so. Russian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff wrote quite a few simple piano pieces that I can't get enough off. He very well encoded slightly oriental themes into Europe's classical form and stripped it bare to leave something new and calm.

More:

Helen O'Hara - A Night in Ireland - A compilation of Irish tunes on the violin sometimes with harp along side.
Djivan Gasparyan - An old man who plays the Duduk (sp?) an instrument from the Kavkaz region of the world which sounds mournful under the most joyous circumstances, but is totally without equal when it comes to style and originality to my western satiated ears.
Yo-Yo Ma/Edgar Meyer/Mark O'Connor - Appalachian Journey & Appalachia Waltz (two albums) - Some of the best string players in the wizorld have gathered to play pieces from the Appalachian mountains region. I love this stuff.

I personally feel Wadada Leo Smith is uh pretty, but you might not. Many of his pieces are solo trumpet compositions that make elaborate use of space and natural echo. It's not for everybody, but maybe you'll like it. I can upload quite a few hard to find albums upon request.

I can probably dig deeper, but I require washing.