Scattering Stars
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley September 6, 2016
Artist – Michelle Qureshi
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http://www.heartdancerecords.com
Tripping delicately through the soundwaves, guitar mixed with synthesizer wraps around an ambient theme created in Beyond the Field, which reoccurs throughout the compositions as Qureshi focuses primarily on guitar to create an album that creates a wonderfully meditative resonance that will have a wide audience appeal.
A self-taught guitarist in her teens, she eventually found her way to studying music, graduating with a Bachelors and Masters of Music, discovering a love of composition and creation, realising that this was her calling, her pathway, her spirituality: on this her seventh album this is apparent as the soft subtle tones of the guitar integrate with synthesizer, and occasionally strings, tabla, bells and keyboards to create a certain alchemy.
Dreamy, spacey and flowing, the music takes you on a journey that is yours for the making with the influences of mystery and curiosity melding in with what is now referred as ambient tones or textures, but always a hint to something different just around the corner with the next note played sending you down yet another pathway.
Each of the pieces is separate and yet a part of the whole, diverse and yet similar, as seen in Chasing the Wind which commences with Native American flutes calling in the synthesizer and didgeridoo, a slight hint of tapping sticks and drum immediately make you think of the timelessness of space, of solar winds, the deep ethereal nature of space and time and place.
Although guitar is not played in this piece it is a tribute to the composition that it shifts the emphasis to another soundscape, another vibration, in order to prepare you for the absolutely meditative piece which follows in Given.
Whether, in the composition phase of this album of shifting soundscapes, the choice to create this almost thematic fluidity was deliberate or not, it has certainly come together to allow the listener to drift effortlessly along with the music
A creative collage, a blending of instruments, ancient, traditional and modern, a delicate touch and the underlying spirituality of the composer has created an album that only improves with the listening. Ethereal, spacy and totally enjoyable.