Stock: 
Format: 
Number of CDs: 2
Release Date: 26-10-1998
Label: Celestial Harmonies
Catalog Number: 12063-2
Barcode: 13711206326
Musical Style: Classical
Track Listing:
| Disc 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Transition [17:17] | 2 | Mandala [25:15] |
| Disc 2 | |||
| 1 | Let It Play [13:06] | 3 | Apotheosis [21:34] |
| 2 | Transpersonal [09:38] | ||
Description:
Peter Michael Hamel's Transition is a masterpiece of extended works for the piano by an artist who has been stretching the boundaries of contemporary Western music for more than two decades. The new double compact disk version of the original 1983 recording is presented in Celestial Harmonies' duobox format, an innovative packaging design that places two compact disks into a standard, single–disk jewel box by means of a modified inner compartment. On Transition, Hamel presents some of his most beautiful and emotionally arresting music. Like many of his other albums, these compositions are difficult to categorize. They all explore a vast range of influences, moods and techniques. The rhapsodic melodies and rich, harmonic flourishes of selections like Transition and Let It Play are as skillfully executed as they are sublime. These pieces exhibit the grace and compositional prowess of classical music, the spontaneity of jazz and the hypnotic qualities of Far Eastern music styles. Mandala, on the other hand, is a piece for prepared piano, which transforms the standard eighty–eight keys into a mini percussion ensemble. Hamel coaxes a wide variety of sounds out of his instrument and at various times during this twenty–five minute piece, the music sounds like everything from an Indonesian gamelan to an African bamboo orchestra. The final work on this richly varied program is an extended exploration for the pipe organ, PPG wave computer and synthesizer that takes listeners out of the realm of everyday experience.
Biography:
Award–winning artist and composer, Peter Michael Hamel, has written music for stage, radio plays and silent movies, as well as orchestral pieces and an opera. In addition to receiving formal musical training in Munich, where he also studied psychology and sociology, Hamel spent time in Asia exploring the Eastern musical traditions. He has authored a book entitled Through Music to the Self which discusses the effects on the human psyche of various Far Eastern improvisational techniques, relating them to Western music's harmonic approach. Hamel's focus on the meditative and spiritual qualities of music, his interest in new improvisational techniques and his decisive talent as a musician and composer are evident in this collection of masterpieces.
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