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!

Peter Buffett – The Waiting

Peter Buffett – The Waiting
MP3 @ 224 Kbps | 41:17 min | 1987 | 72.6 MB | 10% Recovery Record

Peter Buffet is an established musician with some dozen albums and many soundtracks to his credit. The Waiting, which is his first (1987) album, displayed his skill in the developing genre of electronic music. In this album Buffet uses many techniques associated with ‘space’ music – particularly broad tonal layers and a dash of minimalistic repetition – to notable effect. But Buffet avoids the disharmonies that are usually associated with this style. Instead his layers are melodic, sometimes supporting each other, and at other times indulging in complex counterpoint.

The album also demonstrates at a rhythmic level the Native American influences which later came to dominate Buffet’s work. The result is a cohesive whole that always seems to be organized in a direction. Thus the voices he creates are used as instruments rather than as ends in themselves, and the individual tracks reveal steady development rather than dynamic fixation on a simple series of minimal changes. The effect is extremely listenable on both visceral and intellectual levels.

I can’t point to any track as a favorite. Quality is evenly distributed, and some themes seem to persist across the album that makes me believe that Buffet saw this album as a conceptual whole rather than a collection of ‘pieces.’ As a listener you will find yourself drawn into the music and then eased along as it displays its depths. Very different from contemporary Ray Lynch, but equally interesting.  For Hector =_).

Peter Buffett – Spirit

Peter Buffett – Spirit
MP3 @ 256 Kbps | 55:52 min | 1998 | 120 MB | 10% Recovery Record

Imagine Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon with a Native American motif and you have a fair gauge of Peter Buffett’s intentions on Spirit, a live recording of a 1998 stage production involving more than 80 drummers, dancers, and musicians. (Originally aired on public television, Spirit is now on video.) Most of Buffett’s keyboard-driven, percussion-fueled compositions are live renderings of works from his intriguing 1997 release, Spirit Dance, his most recent ode to Native culture. The energized live setting (at times involving a female youth choir, Native American singers, Native American flutist Robert Mirabal, and, impressively, guitarist Peter Maunu) serves Buffett’s atmospheric work well as it traces a theme of personal transformation guided by Native spirits. Spirit may not fully match the sustained sensory impact of Pink Floyd’s opus, but it offers several riveting moments–the percussion-heavy reworking of “Firedance,” his brief contribution to Kevin Costner’s film Dances with Wolves, the exultant “Passage,” and a lost gem from Buffett’s catalog, the plaintive, piano-based “New West.”

Peter Buffett – One By One

Peter Buffett – One By One
MP3 @ 224 Kbps | 43:23 min | 1989 | 76.3 MB | 10% Recovery Record

The composer’s interest in orchestral grandeur is further refined as he routes various acoustic sources — cellos and guitars to owls and basketball sounds — through his samplers and keyboards to create thick timbral tapestries. His Native American interests emerge on several cuts.  For Hector =-)

Peter Buffett – Lost Frontier

Peter Buffett – Lost Frontier
MP3 @ 192 Kbps | 58:46 min | 1991 | 94.0 MB | 10% Recovery Record

A collection of sonic essays inspired by the American West and its original inhabitants, Buffett’s keyboards are enhanced by an ensemble of strings, woodwinds, and guitar. For Hector =-)