Stock: 
Format: 
Release Date: 26-10-1998
Label: Celestial Harmonies
Catalog Number: 11085-2
Barcode: 13711108521
Musical Style: Meditative
Track Listing:
| Disc 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Part I - Announcement [00:17] | 10 | Part X - Flute [01:38] |
| 2 | Part II - Soprano saxophone [02:08] | 11 | Part XI - Voice [00:31] |
| 3 | Part III - Soprano saxophone [02:38] | 12 | Part XII - Bass flute [02:38] |
| 4 | Part IV - Alto flute [02:43] | 13 | Part XIII - Soprano saxophone [06:57] |
| 5 | Part V - Alto flute [02:02] | 14 | Part XIV - Ti-Tze [03:56] |
| 6 | Part VI - Alto flute and voice [02:09] | 15 | Part XV - Voice [01:00] |
| 7 | Part VII - Alto flute [02:51] | 16 | Part XVI - Soprano saxophone [03:46] |
| 8 | Part VIII - Flute [06:19] | 17 | Part XVII - Flute [03:58] |
| 9 | Part IX - Flute [02:40] | ||
Description:
Twenty years after Paul Horn released his original Inside the Taj Mahal recording in 1969, one of the most influential albums in establishing the field of contemplative new age music, Horn returned to India determined to commemorate the anniversary of this landmark album with a new digital recording from the Taj Mahal. The first recording session happened almost by accident. By asking a Taj Mahal guard if he could do a little informal recording after hours, Horn created a masterwork of ambient flute improvisations that changed the course of new age music almost overnight. However, in 1989, political tensions in India made the same course impossible. No longer able to slip into the palace unnoticed with flute and tape recorder, Horn had to make a formal appeal to the Prime Minister for permission. After finally gaining an audience with Rajiv Gandhi and obtaining the blessing of the state, Horn still faced a host of logistic difficulties, including equipment malfunctions and finding ways to keep an increasing number of enthusiastic onlookers and roosting birds quiet during the recording. The minute Horn's fluid improvisations began resounding through the perfect acoustics of the Taj Mahal, it was as if a charm had fallen over the palace. From that point on, everyone knew that Inside the Taj Mahal II had been worth all the effort. The resulting seventeen-piece The Taj Mahal Suite reverberates with some of Horn's most beautiful work to date. Like the original recording, each tone hangs suspended in space for a remarkable twenty-eight seconds, allowing the artist to improvise to the sound of his own echo. Unlike the original session where Horn played only flute, for this project he was equipped with a soprano saxophone, alto and bass flutes and the Chinese bamboo flute (ti-tze), adding a wealth of tonal color, emotive nuances and flexibility to his introspective reflections.
Biography:
A classically trained flautist, Paul Horn played jazz with Chico Hamilton, served as a top studio musician in Los Angeles and recorded with his own quintet in the early 1960s. During that time, he won two Grammy® Awards for his Jazz Suite On The Mass Texts. Increasing dissatisfaction with the Hollywood lifestyle led Horn to India on his search for alternatives, where he studied meditation and began to explore other ways of playing his instrument. The success of his intuitive and contemplative improvisations on Inside the Taj Mahal proved that audiences were ready for a new approach and opened the door to a series of recordings inside acoustic and architectural wonders around the world, including Inside the Great Pyramid and Inside the Cathedral. Both Horn's cross–cultural collaborations and his highly refined works for more conventional Western ensembles have garnered much critical acclaim.
Additional Attributes:
| Relaxing | Uplifting | Meditative | Exercise | Healing | Chant |
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