DEUTER : Music for the Spirit
I discovered Deuter back in the 1980's browsing through a Sydney library music collection, and have just remembered his name (from revisiting the same library in Glebe). Unfortunately Deuter is no longer in their collection. His music is very atmospheric, meditative, and alluring. Generally it's given the term 'relaxation' music, but I find it much more than that. When he's name came back to me I'd half expected him to have been and gone: an obscure and rare artist who just produced in the eighties. He has actually produced a prolific amount of material since then.
The album isn't easy to find - since it was released on his own label. It's called San, and is a prequel to much of the New Age and 'journey' music that came about at the time (to see more info about San click on the album cover image on the left). San isn't listed with his other titles on New Earth Records. I've discovered it doing some searching around. In the early nineties he changed record labels from Kuckuck to New Earth Records. Previous to these two companies he released albums under his own label. San was one such album he released independantly.
From 'New Earth Records' website:
If Deuter does not give you his exact address you'll most likely never find his domain. It is hidden deep in the New Mexico forest he shares with birds, deer, roadrunners, snakes and coyotes. The sound of wind chimes and bees fill the air. He is a beekeeper; recently he's been regularly visited by a bear who rather indelicately tried to sample the sweet wares of his hives. Between studio sessions you'll probably find the musician reshaping his pond or crafting zen-like furniture in his workshop.
Deuter describes himself as a hermit/monk/wolf living in the wild (and enjoying it!). He designed his house using the principles of Feng Shui. The studio, with its large windows and views of the forest, is a sanctuary--a laboratory for music-making that includes instruments from all over the world: Shakuhachi flutes, sitars, tablas, santoors, a Turkish sasz, and a Persian tar; Chimes, bowls and Tibetan bells and of course, keyboards, guitars, and synthesizers. If you are lucky enough to be invited into Deuter's world while he is recording, you will experience a transformation as he disappears into the magic of his music.
A compilation of works spanning three decades, Deuter's "Like the Wind in the Trees" combines pieces from seven of his previous albums, including Sun Spirit, Reiki Hands of Light, and Nada Himalaya. An artist renowned in the genre of healing and meditative music, Deuter will intrigue your clients with his multicultural blends. Infused with soaring flute melodies and delicate keyboard undertones, these tracks have a gentleness that make them ideal accompaniments for message treatments.
Popular healing-music magician Deuter has created another impressive collection of relaxation music on Like the Wind in the Trees. Mimicking the sound and movement of breezes blowing through leafy branches, these songs evidence Deuter's deserved place as a mainstay in the New Age genre. Created in his remote New Mexican house and studio, Deuter's flute-and-keyboard compositions evoke a sense of peacefulness and awe of the natural world. His pace is easy and free, slowly lulling listeners back into their bodies.
--New Age Retailer
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.
--Bill Binkelman, WIND and WIRE
- Click to read Bill Binkelman's article about Deuter
- Click to read the Wikipedia article about Deuter
- Click to read the Music Design focus on Deuter
- Click to read an interview with Deuter
- Click to visit Deuter's MySpace page