The musician Peter Kater was born in Munich, Germany. His parents soon moved to New Jersey, USA, and his mother insisted in his seventh year that he would take piano lessons. At eighteen, he left home and moved around in the USA, where he played the piano here and there. He ended up in Boulder, Colorado, and began to study solo pianist Keith Jarrett, and listen to the avant-garde jazz group Oregon and the Paul Winter Consort. After playing in clubs and lounges, he was hired by churches often and put on small concerts. In 1983, his debut album came out, but after a meeting with flutist R. Carlos Nakai, Kater decided his music should have a healing function. He has collaborated with many other artists and his music has been used for TV shows. He was nominated eleven times for a Grammy Award. His new album, on which he plays pianos, synthesizers, gongs and chimes, is in the direction of healing. “This music emerged within a three-month period of deep inquiry and reflection,” he explains. “It was born of the fire and ashes of self-dissolution and self-discovery, of a deep longing for connection and sustained intimacy, and a powerful surrender into and acceptance of what ‘is’. There is love and there is fear. There is light and there is darkness. And as we learn to embrace all of our selves and all of each other, we nurture the experience of grace and compassion, and a deep loving and passionate peace. Throughout our life’s experience, within ourselves and each other, we share a deep ‘resonance’ with all that exists.” This beautiful instrumental music is gentle, healing, relaxing and melodious.
— Patrick Van de Wiele (4 stars)
