Spiritual Haven – Relaxing ethnic instruments and rhythms blended with modern sounds
This morning I was looking for music to serve as the soundtrack for my morning yoga routine. (routine 3 from Richard Hittleman) I made a stop at the Zone Music Reporter‘s Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart The album that caught my eye was the number 31 album Spiritual Haven by Russell Suereth. It sounded like an album that would make a good soundtrack for my yoga set, so I gave it a quick listen,I liked what I heard, but for some reason I didn’t use it, I come back and listen to it later in the morning though, and I think that I will be in my music rotation for a while. Here’s what Steve Sheppard of One World Music says about Spiritual Haven
“Spiritual Haven by Russell Suereth has got to be the most fresh and unique album that you will have heard for a long while…This has to be one of the most fascinating and cleverly woven albums that I have had the pleasure to listen to for some years.”
The first thing that interested me about the about was the description of the music on the album cover “Relaxing ethnic instruments and rhythms blended with modern sounds” Any time I read the words “ethnic instruments I’m intrigued! So what could these instruments be? From Russell’s website….
Spiritual Haven contains an interesting combination of sounds. The basis for much of the music are the sounds of Western acoustic instruments — piano, oboe, bassoon, guitar, viola, cello and French horn.These are augmented by a variety of traditional ancient instrumentation from around the world — duduk (a double-reed woodwind-flute that originated in Armenia), guzheng (a Chinese plucked zither), grand marimba (a low-pitched xylophone that originated in Africa but was developed in Latin America), koto (a Japanese zither with movable bridges), oud (a Mideast lute with a short neck), krin (A West African idiophone log drum) and ethnic frame drums (animal-skin hand-drums from the native tribes of the Americas). Read More
Suereth began his musical journey as a guitarist. Through the years Suereth’s music has expanded beyond the guitar to include keyboards and wide variety of instruments and sounds, according to Suereth:
. “I was particularly impressed by David Arkenstone’s Valley in the Clouds, David Lanz’s Cristofori’s Dream, The Narada Collections, Patrick O’Hearn and Alex deGrassi. Eventually this led to my decision to start incorporating a much wider range of sounds and instruments into my style.In the late 2000s I met a professor of music at a college who was very helpful in introducing me to the possibilities of keyboards, so I ended up taking lessons from him to expand my musical proficiencies. I still love the guitar, which is a very physical way of making music. But working on the piano and keyboards helped me understand a lot of things I was missing, including accompaniment. This led to my exploration of synthesizers, samplers and computers in creating my music.
Spiritual Haven is the third release from Russell Suereth. It follows Small Steps his debut EP and his first full length album Going Down the Highway. All of his work has been well received. In addition to his music, Suereth is also the creator of Music of Spiritual Places, a video series that focuses on spiritual places around the globe. In describing his thoughts about spiritual havens Suereth relates….
“I believe people all over the world need spiritual havens,” explains Suereth. “Of course some people find this in physical places such as churches, temples or sacred sites, but with the right mind-set it can also be in a car, on a couch, in your home or in an office.The most important aspect is that people from all nationalities, cultures and countries need to be able to find a sense of spirituality within themselves and feel safe to go there. Religion and belief in a Higher Power is a matter of personal choice, but spiritual meditation is universal and can also encompass a person’s own spirit as well as nature and the world around us.
So I think I’ll pick a nice spiritual haven, then take a copy of Spiritual Haven there for a little on-site meditation!! Why don’t you try it, too!
Links for Further Exploration of the Music of Russell Suereth
Artist Website:Russell Sureth Facebook: Russell Suereth – Music of Sacred Places Soundcloud cdbaby: Russell Suereth Here’s a video for the track “A Magic Flight” from Spiritual Haven – Richard Suereth YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEQYEFHwJs0&feature=youtu.be
