Deuter - Illumination of the Heart

DEUTER MIMICS THE HUMAN VOICE WITH INSTRUMENTS ON LATEST NEW AGE RELEASE

Deuter is an absolute master at making new age music, and he has been for the past four-and-a-half decades (this guy just keeps on going and going). His new album, Illumination of the Heart, is a wonderful example of his prowess, but it is a little strange too. The album package says it contains flutes, keyboards, cello, piano, guitar and voices (we assume all by Deuter because that is the way he usually works). But the music contains the sounds of either synthesized female voices doing wordless vocalizing or some ethnic instrument (probably from China, Japan, India or the Mideast, and probably a bowed instrument) that sounds like a woman’s voice. They definitely do not quite sound like real voices, but people have commented on these ethnic instruments mimicking the human voice for the past thousand years. This high vocal sound appears on at least four of the eight tracks -- “Matamua,” “Moon and Earth,” “Tonglen” and “Mericoeur.” I guess the best way to enjoy the music is to just sit back, relax and let the sounds work their magic spell, but my ear keeps asking, “What is that unusual instrument?” Since no other credits are give, we might assume that when the package lists “voices,” that it means Deuter’s voice over-dubbed. This is exactly what it sounds like at the beginning of “Coucher de Lune” in which he captures the sound of a male choir singing a capella in German or French inside a large European cathedral. Now that voice (presumably his) sounds like a real voice. Similarly, “Moon and Earth,” grows and swells until, toward the end, the instrument resembling a female voice comes to sound like a female (or maybe female-male) cathedral choir, but in a synthesized fashion (with only the addition of a real wood flute coming in two-thirds of the way through this composition to add support). The effects Deuter creates are absolutely lovely, but how he creates them we shall probably never know. The music ranges from the melodic and rhythmic “Matamua” to the ambient “Stern an Stern” (with ambient synth overlayed with separate moments of cello, piano and flute). Deuter even tosses in some traditional nature sounds (water and birds) on “Schein und Widerschein.” The album package says: “His sublime compositions transcend aural boundaries.” You need to feel this music as much as listen to it.