Deuter is surely one of the most reliable new age artists out there. I doubt the guy could record a bad album if he tried. It’s pointless to worry about whether if, at this stage of his career (he’s been releasing new age music for well over twenty years), he has something ‘new’ to say or not. On Sea and Silence, he mines his most gentle and serene vein, while still retaining overt musicality. These music sources include his recorder (which, all by itself, graces the opening track, ‘Silent Bay’ for half of the song before warm washes of choirs and gentle bell tones are brought into play), piano and flute, which are all spread throughout the album, along with the artist’s usual superb keyboard work as well.
You’re either into this kind of unabashed new age music or you’re not. I’m not going to tell you this is quasi-ambient music (although I think it has those elements) or that it’s electronic music (although it has plenty of those textures, as well). No, this is one hundred percent new age music – beautiful in its major chord/note tonalities, soft and reassuring in its comforting billows of keyboards, wind instruments, and awash in perfectly recorded seashore sound effects. If you enjoy music that is meant to envelop you in the musical equivalent of a gentle ocean-borne breeze, warm rays from the sun, and the scent of tropical lands wafting in the air, then you will find Sea and Silence an enchanting and luxuriously indulgent listening experience.
The title track blends piano, synth strings, and waves lapping the shore, along with some other electronic textures, yielding feelings of both bliss and introspection (at thirteen and a half minutes, it’s also the longest track on the CD). ‘Reflection’ is beautiful and haunting, featuring only deeply echoed silver flute played in an improvisatory style (a la Paul Horn), for its entire eight-plus minutes. Other tracks include the gently rhythmic “Seven Sacred Pools” (relaxed hand drums underneath sampled guitar and synth washes, with a flute-carried main melody line), the more overtly electronic “Coral Gardens” (which harkens back to the golden age of new age music from artists like Robert Haig Coxon with its reverberating bell tones) and the album closing “Empty Shore” (a somewhat somber yet hopeful mixture of new age music with classic spacemusic, as washes of synths envelop you in wave after wave of electronic bliss married to contemplative echoed piano).
Jaded as I am, I find Deuter’s music always elicits nothing but a good reaction from me. Whether he’s working in this particular vein (relaxation music) or something more active (like 2000′s Sun Spirit), he never fails to prove that he still stands as one of the preeminent artists in new age music. Here is a consummately skilled musician and one who is deeply committed to making the world a better place through his gift of music; music crafted with care and filled with loving beauty. I hope he never stops.
