LIGHT OF THIS WORLD

Price: £12.98 inc. VAT (£11.05 ex. VAT)

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Release Date: 10-12-2003

Label: Valley Entertainment

Catalog Number: 00722

Barcode: 15882007221

Musical Style: Space Music

Description:

A 'Best Of' Compilation Album, showcasing 13 pieces from albums Demby has recorded since 1978. A great way to sample her incredible range of styles, and her earlier recordings, many of which are classic jewels.

'Light of this World: offers a sampler of the music from Demby's 1978 Skies above Skies through the 1986 masterpiece Novus Magnificat; two bonus tracks were written for this compilation album. The title track opens the album, an inspiring and brash pop vocal piece (Demby sounds remarkably like Bette Midler) with female backup vocals, hot drums, electric guitar emulator,and bass.

The title track from Demby's 1980 Sunborne also showcases Demby's voice, but in her more cosmic and chantlike mode. The instrumentation is vast -- organ sounds, trap set, piano -- a sound fit for the birth of galaxies. The exhilarating 'Flying Bach' from Novus Magnificat features some fancy organ work with sampled chorus and orchestra. 'Radiance' from Sacred Space Music offers an organ drone with the sparkling tones of the hammered dulcimer. Overhead, Demby vocalizes like an angel. ' The Dawning' from Sunborne showcases Demby's enormous Sonic Steel Instruments, the Space Bass and the Whale Sail. Demby's 1994 live album, Constance Demby at Alaron, is represented by two pieces, 'The Chakoor Bird' (on which Demby plays the resonant Chinese cheng) and 'Gurudev Aja,' an exotic synthesizer piece with drone. Demby's first album, Skies Above Skies, is represented by two devotional prayers, 'OmManiPadmeHum' (radiant piano and organ drone) and 'God Is' (a mystical work for organ).

'Sanctus' ends the album, a radiant new piece brimming with chimes and gongs. None of the pieces here tops seven minutes (the pieces may last to a half hour in the original versions), but I could not sense any had been cut. A lot of albums claim 'best of'; this one delivers. Demby is a visionary musician, and this album should whet your appetite for more.

Biography:

An irrepressible personality with an infectious joie de vivre, Constance Demby is also a sincere spiritual seeker. A fifth generation Californian born in Oakland, Demby began classical piano studies at the age of eight. At twelve she moved to Connecticut where her artistic studies also included painting and sculpture.

Throughout the 70s, she gave concerts, workshops and visual/musical presentations all over the eastern seaboard. During this period, she began to develop new forms of contemplative classical music. By the end of the decade, she had established her own label and released her first albums of meditative and sacred spacemusic (Skies Above Skies and Sunborne).

Demby's music blossomed when she returned permanently to northern California in 1980 and began experimenting with electronic instruments. Two years later, she released Sacred Space Music Vol. 1, an enduring album featuring hammered dulcimer, acoustic piano and synthesizer (re-released in 1988, HS11010).

Soon after the arrival of digital sampling keyboards, Demby integrated symphonic instrumental sounds into her music and began recording in her own 16-track studio. There she produced Novus Magnificat (1986, HS11003). Her 1989 release Set Free (HS11016) added rhythms and influences from Bali and Africa to her contemporary classical base and was hailed as a first-rate release by an artist in her prime. Several international tours followed, to Europe, South America, the Canary Islands, Japan, Indonesia and beyond.

With the help of Jim Miller of Stratus Sounds, Demby updated her entire studio in the early 90s, replacing many of her early synthesizers with an impressive array of the latest electronic instruments and recording technology.

Additional Attributes:

Relaxing	Uplifting	Meditative	Exercise	Healing	Chant

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