QuietMelodies is now open!

As many of you might already know, the new portal is finally open!!!!!  I am so sorry that it has taken so long to happen, but I do hope you find it worth the wait.  Some of the new features you will be able to enjoy are being able to message any member & being able to post your own favorites.  There will also be a forum added so that requests and such can be made there.  Eventually hope to in essence mirror this blog there and of course have new content available.  The new music available should be substantially more than here as there will be multiple people posting =-).  Please stop by and join your NEW home for QuietMusic – www.quietmelodies.com!

David Lanz & Paul Speer – Natural States

David Lanz & Paul Speer – Natural States
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 42:15 min | 103 MB | 1985 | 10% Recovery Record

This has been one of the most relaxing new age CD’s i have ever listened to. As a newcomer to the music of Lanz & Speer i was pleasantly surprised how good this album was. David Lanz’ keyboards and Paul Speer diversity on numerous instruments, particularly the guitar, truly impresses. Tracks like ” Faces of the Forest” and “Mountain” pave the way for truly outstanding pieces like “Allegro 985” and “Lento 984”. The sheer beauty of this album cannot be overstated. Listen with good quality headphones and let the sounds take you to another place. First class!

David Lanz & Gary Stroutsos – Living Temples

David Lanz & Gary Stroutsos – Living Temples
MP3 @ 225 Kbps VBR | 50:43 min | 71.7 MB | 2008 | 10% Recovery Record

If you heard the desert sing, how would you describe its song? What melodies arise from the red rock, the river, and the open sky? What is the sound of a sacred place?

Alone at the piano, with filmmaker Jan Nickman’’s images flickering on the near by screen, composer and musician, David Lanz, began to slowly find answers to these questions. And then enter into the fold, world flutist and composer Gary Stroutsos, and engineer/producer Gary Lanz. Not content to create a soundtrack restrained in style, these three friends and brothers allowed the muse to have her way, wild and elusive at first, then flowing freely, and finally tamed and captured in the recording. Blending the classic sounds of piano, cello, and upright acoustic bass, with exotic native and world flutes, dreamy synth textures, hand percussion, and the majestic thundering sound of the Taos drums, the compositions were given room to breathe, unfold, and come to life. This is music that reflects the spacious beauty the American Southwest evokes. Beauty at once stark, rich, and surprisingly lush in texture. So what is the sound of a sacred place? Listen to the music of Living Temples and you may just hear the answer . . .

David Lanz – Painting the Sun

David Lanz – Painting the Sun
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 48:38 min | 114 MB | 2008 | 10% Recovery Record

The master new age piano pioneer took a cool and rhythmic detour in the early 2000s, working with some top smooth jazz stars to create a spirited, radio-friendly hybrid he playfully referred to as “smooth age.” After returning to his roots (and his original label, Narada) with the atmospheric Spirit Romance, his 2005 dual project with flutist Gary Stroutsos, Lanz, on his beautiful and impressionistic Shanachie debut Painting the Sun, comes full-circle back to the elegant and contemplative (but still engagingly melodic) solo piano vibe that launched his career 25 years earlier. His original idea for the album title was “A Time for Peace,” but taking a walk around his Seattle area home on a sunny spring day found him looking up and thinking about the artistic spirit of one’s soul and energy–which is what has always emerged in his deepest musings throughout his career. Beyond the eloquently stated originals (highlighted by the hypnotic title track, the highly improvisational “Spanish Blue,” a thoughtful “Hymn,” and the dark toned, moody “Evening Song”), Lanz mines the familiar ground of his musical influences as he covers the Pete Seeger-composed Byrds classic “Turn Turn Turn.” This lush reading continues in the whimsical spirit of his 1998 British Invasion tribute Songs from an English Garden. Lanz did well crossing over with smooth audiences, but this long-awaited project makes it clear that he expresses his truest heart when he’s sitting at the piano channeling heavenly inspiration.

David Lanz – Love Songs

David Lanz – Love Songs
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 1:09:00 min | 171 MB | 2001 | 10% Recovery Record

Love Songs showcases pianist-composer David Lanz in perhaps his most affecting setting–performing solo, or with modest accompaniment, as he summons lovely, heart-touching melodies from some deep, internal reservoir of passion and clarity. The disc is a sampler that draws from seven pre-2000 recordings (plus one live track, an attractive performance of “The Eyes of Amelia” with guitarist Eric Tingstad and oboist Nancy Rumbel), and it features several of Lanz’s best-known works–from the famed title track of Cristofori’s Dream to a pair of selections (“Song for Monet” and “Leaves on the Seine”)more… from his masterful 1984 release, Nightfall. The recording’s concept and title were dreamt up by his former label, since Lanz views himself not as a romantic but merely as an enlightened pilgrim. Only once, he has stated, has he ever written a song with overt romantic intentions–“Leaves on the Seine,” which he composed after a visit to Paris with his wife. The rest, he says, simply reflect his optimistic view of a more compassionate world to come. This helps explain the sentimental overload that sometimes creeps into his works. (The schmaltz police, for example, might write him up for a few excesses on “Beloved.”) Yet Lanz’s heart is ultimately in the right place, and his simple but earnest music makes a persuasive argument for putting yours there, too.

David Lanz & Paul Speer – Desert Vision

David Lanz & Paul Speer – Desert Vision
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 48:16 min | 121 MB | 1987 | 10% Recovery Record

Desert Vision’ is no less than just that; the music paints vivid mental pictures of canyons, of deserts, of kopjes, rock formations and plateaux. ‘Eagle’s Path’ starts with a lush piano and woodwind intro, sounding very melancholy but yet strangely uplifting. As the music progresses, the eagle grows in the mind’s eye; flying free above vast desert scrublands. The music crescendoes, and introduces guitars, making the song almost frantic, and yet joyous. ‘Canyon Lands’ is probably the cream of the crop in this album. It gets your attention immediately with a mystic, almost howling note, and notmore… before too long, drums and heavy pianos arrive, soon to be followed by electric guitar. Every piece of music in this album is uplifting in its own way, but in my opinion this one does so the best. Even without knowing the song’s title, it would be impossible not to associate the haunting melodies with a canyon; eroding steadily away by howling, time-old winds; revealing striped sedimentary rock. It’s obvious that Lanz and Speer are genuine musicians; they know how music works and how to manipulate it to make poetry with sound. Their apparent fascination with the natural world is what sculpts and enhances their music. Sheer class.

David Lanz – Return To The Heart

David Lanz – Return To The Heart
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 1:01:20 min | 150 MB | 1991 | 10% Recovery Record

“It’s all about a hope for a brighter future,” David says. “It’s my hope that we can all rediscover a positive, uplifting outlook on life, then use that feeling to motivate us to live lives that can positively influence those around us: our families, our communities and, at some point, the entire world. It all starts, I believe, with a return to the heart.” – David Lanz

David Lanz – Romantic (The Ultimate David Lanz Narada Collection)

David Lanz – Romantic (The Ultimate David Lanz Narada Collection)
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 2:11:37 min | 316 MB | 2002 | 2 CD’s | 10% Recovery Record

David Lanz’s decade-spanning career is given an overview on the 2002 collection Romantic: The Ultimate David Lanz Narada Collection. His piano-based instrumental compositions have sold millions of records, making him one of Narada’s most successful artists, and this retrospective assembles 27 of his sentimental works in a two-disc set. Perfect for listeners interested in discovering the artist and longtime fans who will enjoy having all of his best-known songs in one place.

David Lanz, Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel – Woodlands

David Lanz, Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel – Woodlands
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 43:01 min | 106 MB | 1990 | 10% Recovery Record

Woodlands is a CD of largely acoustic soundworlds by Eric Tingstad, Nancy Rumbel, and David Lanz. It is gentle and ambient. The sound design incorporates the finest efforts of these gifted artists. Tingstad’s guitars are, as always, smooth; Rumbel’s winds are silken; and Lanz’s piano is mellow. The combination creates a pastoral soundscape, complete with organic and elegant textures. This CD, while not the best work of Tingstad & Rumbel, is still very strong and enjoyable. It will appeal to fans of Lisa Lynne, Kitaro, Gary Stroutsos, and Jonn Serrie.

David Lanz – The Symphonic Sessions

David Lanz – The Symphonic Sessions
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 52:19 min | 129 MB | 2003 | 10% Recovery Record

David Lanz brings a deep sensitivity and passion to his music. Accompanied by the elegance of an orchestra, his music is filled with a grandeur, power, and richness unlike anything else. THE SYMPHONIC SESSIONS bring together Lanz’s most popular and powerful performances in an orchestral setting for a musical experience to be treasured for years to come.

David Lanz – Best of David Lanz (2005)

David Lanz – Best of David Lanz (2005)
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 53:24 min | 133 MB | 2005 | 10% Recovery Record

A friend gave me The Best of David Lanz for my birthday several years ago, and even now I listen to this album all the way through at least once a week. I listen over dinner, while working, in the car; it’s a fantastic compilation of intricate, relaxing music.

David Lanz & Gary Stroutsos – Spirit Romance

David Lanz & Gary Stroutsos – Spirit Romance
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 49:52 min | 123 MB | 2005 | 10% Recovery Record

This album from piano master David Lanz is something like the new age equivalent of a jam session. Lanz took to his piano and Gary Stroutsos to his flute and, in combination with a small handful of other new age musicians and engineers, spent a few weekends putting together a series of instrumental works. The music is composed to have a “Zen-like quality,” which is to say that there is no real motif in use and no thematic sense to speak of, but more of a generalized feeling that can be given mood or content proactively by the listener. In the realm of new age music, this one’s relatively nice. More emphasis is given to the general likableness of the sound than to the occasional spiritual or academic backings that can twist music to a more intellectual level without aesthetic purpose (à la interpretive dance). This one is a plausible addition to the collections of non-new age listeners, as a basic piece of background music on a quiet day.

David Lanz – Songs From an English Garden

David Lanz – Songs From an English Garden
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 50:02 min | 124 MB | 1998 | 10% Recovery Record

As David Lanz demonstrates Songs From an English Garden, his first ambition in life was to be a rock & roll pianist based on the music he grew up with in the ’60s. Having done brilliant orchestral, rock, and solo piano versions of Moody Blues, Procol Harum, and Beatles classics throughout his discography, this colorful new tribute to the British Invasion can be seen as simply an extension, a case of the more, the merrier. No doubt his main obstacle laid in not creating muzak versions of these well worn hits, and his arrangements — and use of unusual instrumentation and vibrant guest shots by Dave Koz and Herb Alpert — reflect careful respect on his part. Lanz plays Peralta bells, for instance, on a percussive take of the Hollies’ “Bus Stop,” and creates a staccato, stop and start effect combining piano and orchestra. He asks original Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher to add a touch of blues to the castanet clapping Latin vibe of that band’s hit “Conquistador” and swings through a brassy rendition of “Tuesday Afternoon,” alternating ivory registers (as the original did) and adding the ’70s touch of the Wurlitzer electric piano. Dealing with simple melodies like “I’ll Follow the Sun” and “Ferry Cross the Mersey,” he also creates original passages that introduce the main tune, while stripping down to basics on a poignant rendition of “Strawberry Fields Forever.” That same tender grace characterizes the original title track as well as the other original piece, the rainy day portrait “London Blue,” which provides an appropriate setting for some of British rock’s most beloved treasures.

David Lanz – Skyline Firedance

David Lanz – Skyline Firedance
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 1:26:02 min | 213 MB | 1990 | 2 CD’s | 10% Recovery Record

Just when you thought the folks at new age haven Narada couldn’t top 1990s Wilderness Collection and the Narada Nutcracker in terms of musical events, along came perhaps the year’s most ambitious and exquisite instrumental project from new age’s top star, the melodic, rhythmic super-pianist David Lanz. Having shown a mastery of the ivories on 1988s top genre release Cristofori’s Dream, Lanz entered the new decade determined to top even himself… what he has achieved is nothing short of a true musical miracle, a dynamic two CD (for the price of one) set featuring the same inspiring compositions performed as solo piano pieces and then with Munich’s IFS Philharmonic Orchestra. Similar to and influenced by David Foster’s The Symphony Sessions, this body of work cements Lanz’s status in new age, whether he likes the title or not. The collection’s finest moments find Lanz campaigning for world peace (“Dancing on the Berlin Wall,” “The Crane”) and covering the Moody Blues’ classical-rock gem “Nights in White Satin” to near orgasmic effect on the orchestral disc. Skyline Firedance is one of his best works, a modern musical masterpiece.

David Lanz – Sacred Road

David Lanz – Sacred Road
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 48:01 min | 116 MB | 1996 | 10% Recovery Record

“This music chronicles my Sacred Road, yet it is a journey we can all take…a journey inward where the travelers are transformed and discover the gift of our true being.” – David Lanz

David Lanz – Cristofori’s Dream

David Lanz – Cristofori’s Dream
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 45:49 min | 113 MB | 1994 | 10% Recovery Record

David Lanz’s Cristofori’s Dream is among the most popular new age recordings ever made. This is an album of instrumental piano music (with other instruments, especially strings and string-like synthesizers, added). Its selections have a calm elegance, as Lanz spends most of his time in the upper register of the piano delivering precise, articulated melodies, culminating in a re-creation of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” that features original organist Matthew Fisher.

David Lanz & Paul Speer – Bridge Of Dreams

David Lanz & Paul Speer – Bridge Of Dreams
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 53:03 min | 134 MB | 1993 | 10% Recovery Record

The pianist and electric guitarist have transcended new age boundaries to create majestic, rock tinged masterpieces that press the groove button as they enchant the listener’s spirit. Their mid-’80s recordings, Natural States and Desert Vision, are widely regarded as benchmarks in the genre, and while the dynamic pair have never stopped working together on each other’s solo projects, Bridge of Dreams shows what can happen when they each contribute equally. Lanz’ gentle ivory graces and soaring symphonic textures nearly make contemporary classical music from grand and eloquent statements like the title track and its follow-up pieces “She Stands on the Mountain, Still” and “Veil of Tears.” Yet Speer’s biting electric riffs, which underpin them, turn the Lanz sparks into unquenchable wildfires. Speer wrote the bouncy, guitar driven “Walking with Alfredo” and turbocharged “Out of the Shadows” as great counterpoints to Lanz’s whimsical motifs. A cover of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” is given the royal treatment, a many-years-ahead preview of Lanz’ all-cover album of the late ’90s, Songs From an English Garden.

David Lanz – The Good Life

David Lanz – The Good Life
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 43:27 min | 108 MB | 2004 | 10% Recovery Record

David Lanz built his reputation on sentimental solo piano themes, notably the title theme from 1988’s New Age chart topping disc, Cristofori’s Dream. He’s expanded his repertoire over the years with various ensemble and orchestral recordings, but the core of his sound has always been sweet, romantic compositions dressed in faux-classical filigree. That ain’t The Good Life. Lanz comments in his liner notes that The Good Life is “extroverted, uptempo, light hearted.” In an attempt at reinvention, Lanz resorts to smooth jazz calculations with snappy rhythms, melodies that slipped off the cruise ship lounge and arrangements bought cut-rate at the strip mall. Smooth jazz hired guns are brought in, including saxophonist Eric Marienthal and keyboardists Jeff Lorber and Gregg Karukas, who also co-produced the disc. They conspire to give The Good Life a generically slick sheen, but it lacks even the hint of a soul, not even a Jimmy Buffett-good-time soul. The Good Life is ultimately lifeless.

David Lanz – Heartsounds

David Lanz – Heartsounds
MP3 @ 192 Kbps | 44:34 min | 44.5 MB | 1983 | 10% Recovery Record

Heartsounds is a unique and exciting collection of new acoustic piano music. The album combines a virtuoso performance with inventive melodies which evoke exuberant, vibrant musical expressions. Lanz has a very personal style in the impressionistic mode with each composition creating a breathtakingly beautiful statement…

David Lanz – Finding Paradise

David Lanz – Finding Paradise
MP3 @ 320 Kbps | 46:06 min | 115 MB | 2002 | 10% Recovery Record

The sweeping, piano-driven sounds of David Lanz approach the 20-year mark on Finding Paradise, his 2002 release. With his usual sentimental arrangements and crew of session musicians, this is exactly what one would expect from a David Lanz album. This could have been made in 1987 or in 1995 — it has the timeless sound of smooth jazz and new age that has become a favorite of waiting rooms and grocery stores around the country. Lanz is an acquired taste, but fans of the Kenny G/Najee school of music should find this to be a fine addition to their collections.