CD Review: Autumn Monsoon by Suzanne Teng & Gilbert Levy

Autumn Monsoon is the new album from Suzanne Teng and Gilbert Levy.  Autumn Monsoon features 10 tracks of ethereal and evocative instrumental music played on Native American flutes and drums, percussion, and stringed instruments from around the world.  The album was conceived as a musical journey across the world and beyond--way beyond, including India, the American Southwest, West Africa, and the Saharan desert,  The "way beyond" is from "Andromeda" about a journey to that galaxy.  The Native American flute in its various permutations lends itself to dreamlike contemplation, and the duo take full advantage with Teng's soulful playing, combined with various other flutes like the bass and alto, and other diverse instruments like the frame drum and even a hammer dulcimer.   

Suzanne Teng’s mellifluous flute sounds, warm the heart, and soothe the soul.  Gilbert Levy provides a euphonious backdrop.  The Teng Levy Duo make harmonious music that deeply nourishes, the sonic embodiment of serenity.

The album is perfect for for meditation or shamanic journeying.  If you listen closely you can, indeed, take the journey that is promised to a familiar or foreign land, though you're left, appropriately, without the touchstone of a cultural instrument when you're venturing to Andromeda, as that track features a haunting flute and an inter-galactic backdrop.

Autumn Monsoon is a good way to get some dust on your mental traveling shoes, including some interstellar star dust. 

Tracks Include:

1. Autumn Monsoon

2. Indian Sisters

3. Maya

4. Traveler

5. Blue Ngoni

6. Canyon Ghosts

7. Sueños

8. Andromeda

9. Journey of Life

10. Prayer for Claire

Sample Tracks from CD Baby HERE

 

--CD Review by Viviana Guzman, Flute Professor at the University of California Santa Cruz, Director of the San Francisco Flute Society & Flutes by the Sea Masterclass