Streaming Links
https://lnk.to/daviddarling_otherworlds
GRAMMY AWARD WINNING Cellist David Darling’s “Other Worlds” is a unique New Age album that includes his signature solo, pizzicato, multi-layered cello choirs, and vocalizations; while exploring different canvases of piano, electronic music and percussion, expanded with additional soloists. Guest performers include virtuosos Jiebing Chen (Erhu, Zhonghu) and Lili Haydn (Violin). From the blending of styles in “Other Worlds”, the lush and meditative “Amelia”, the driving “The Benedictine”, the emotional “Rendezvous”, to the trance state of “Voyager” and more; each track takes the listener on a different musical journey. Available in Stereo and Dolby Atmos.
Guest Performers
Jiebing Chen (Erhu, Zhonghu, Electric Erhu)
Lili Haydn (Violin)
Ty Burhoe (Tabla)
John Marshall (Percussion)
Janet Feder (Nylon String Guitar)
Carolyn Fazio (Bass)
Recording Credits
Recorded, Mixed and Produced by Michael Verdick
Additional Production by Mickey Houlihan
Additional Production and Recording by Joe Shepard
Atmos Mixing was done at Electric Audio Inc (Jason McDaniel) and Saturn Sound
Cover Art Work
Drawing of David Darling by Kaitlyn Tucek
Cover Design by Michael Verdick
Special Thanks
Bonnie Darling
Al Evers
Phil McMahon
Jason McDaniel
Chris and Rebecca Cueto
Taylor Fraser
ARTISAN MUSIC REVIEWS by R J Lannan
When the terms exploration and music come together the result might be Other Worlds by David Darling and company. With its unearthly elements and sublime melodies it is a close encounter of a Darling Kind. But honestly, this is not anything about deep space or unrevealed planets, but more of discoveries available in our own world using open eyes and open hearts. Other Worlds is a fascinating mixture of organic and electronic themes made possible by David Darlings’ unfinished tracks going back as far as 1997. The melodic seeds planted by Darlings’
genius are more than enough for an abundant crop of rare and delicious musical fruits.
The pensive tune Amelia opens the album with a serious and soft piano ballad. Quiet, measured piano notes carefully blend with smooth, almost imperceptive strings with perhaps a touch of the Spanish combine into a kind of bluesy Bolero.
The haunting, eerie sound of the Chinese erhu and the boisterous voice of some discordant electronic elements obsess the tune Voyager. The sweetly sad chronicle exhibits perhaps an introspective sojourner rather than a well-known spacecraft. Metronomic percussion ticks away the time spent in a kind of fantastic stasis. Ah, the discoveries to be made there.
Other Worlds, the title tune is a fascinating song full of positive movement and mystery thanks to the pervasive percussion over a strong piano melody suggesting that Other Worlds need not be found in at a vast distance from our own planet. Some Other Worlds can be found as close as your own imagination and the music paves the way for creativity and openness. The gentle, flowing motif of the cello curls around the piano theme like permeating smoke. One of my favorites on the recording from first note to fade.
One of the most remarkable tunes on the album is called Lament of the Fallen. The cello fairly weeps in the motif as the piano expression becomes a quiet dirge in the background. Darling has broached the subject at other times, but the sound of loss is emotionally transmuted in this keening requiem into music that reaches every part of the soul. Listening to this musical lamentation seems to concentrate a grieving process without regard to time or place. Caution is advised.
The Benedictine offers up an inorganic chorus of haunting voices that introduce a signature Darling pizzicato creation. The song is strong of both melody and movement. The Benedictines were one of the earliest orders of Christianity and David captures their ceaseless energies, their zealous drive, and their everlasting faith in a refrain that is both ancient and futuristic.
In a poignant act of finality, The Walk Home closes the album with aires of sadness and regret. For the most part a solo piece, this too short denouement is the end of the day weary, an
exhaustion more of the spirit than the body. Luckily, we don’t actually hear surrender. The Walk Home is a beautiful, but abridged piece like a poem on the last page of a book.
Other tracks include Rendezvous in which violinist Lili Haydn excels and The Pilgrimage another adventure into beautiful erhu land. Cellist David Darling, known chiefly for his participation in Paul Winter’s Consort, was the consummate musician with a career that spanned decades, but we must never forget that he was a teacher, first and foremost. His innate ability to amalgamate multiple genres was his gift. He was the ultimate king of fusion music. The eight journeys on this remarkable album are enough to keep your imagination going in overdrive for some time. Guest performers include Jiebing Chen on erhu, Lili Haydn on violin, Ty Burhoe on tabla, John Marshall on percussion, Janet Feder on nylon string guitar, and Carolyn Fazio on bass. Excellent.
- R J Lannan, ArtisanMusicReviews.com
Release Date: October 18, 2024
Label: Curve Blue
David Darling is joined by virtuosos Jiebing Chen (erhu, zhonghu) and Lili Haydn (violin) as guest performers on Other Worlds. The new album includes the late cellist's signature pizzicato, vocalizations, and solo and choir cellos.
"Amelia" opens the door to this recording and is the second-longest composition at 6:07. The cello is David's doorway to bringing in the other atmospheric instrumentation, including a lovely piano that seems to be stepping carefully down a path led by David. The other subtleties are an enhancement, making this opening a track a relaxing and intimate way to bring the listener in and keep them.
"Voyager" begins with light percussion, and the cello sounds magnificent and precise. A synth layer forms the backdrop, and an Erhu adds extra texture and feeling as the cello answers beautifully. The percussion remains light and practical while maintaining a constant, stable beat. The way I hear the cello is like never before; it usually sounds so sad and longing, but not this time. David's bending of the strings is so different in style and tone that it makes you wonder how he created something so different and sophisticated, separating himself from anyone else who played it.
The title track, "Other Worlds," comes in at 6:10 but is not the longest. You wonder how all of it will come together with so much time involved in one track and with a cello, never a lead instrument. It starts with more of that longing, faraway sound or feeling, yet succinct and meaningful. It suddenly changes with rhythm by backing the cello that calls out to your heart. Deep bass follows along with a touch of piano arriving into the mix like water dropping off a leaf onto the ground; gentle, but you know it's there, giving it more life and color.
"Rendezvous" starts with the cello and piano in an interplay of sound and color. It sounds like it is leading into something soon. The change comes with a more rhythmic approach, giving it immediate substance and a stronger foundation from which to work and branch out, and it does so without hesitation. The cello is in absolution for one instrument within the weaving of sounds found in one track. I hear emotion amplified via the notes as, once again, the piano's gentle accompaniment makes it more sensory and unique for a listener.
"The Pilgrimage" is a magnificent oeuvre at 6:50 minutes. It starts very interestingly, with an entirely different tone and resonance from the cello; you must hear it. An excellent guitar is in place; as it goes through its paces and ebbs and flows like a river of sound, you know what you are hearing is something special and begin to understand why nearly seven minutes are needed to complete it. Some wordless vocals join the ever-present percussive intonations to give a tribal hymn feel. The piano is always there to add ambiance and flavor and is more significant in the last few minutes before this complex composition ends.
"The Benedictine" sounds as you would imagine, beginning with deeper wordless vocals, i.e., the monks. Of course, that is the first thing that comes to mind when you see the track title. Once again, another completely different turn of the music is chosen. The sound of the cello is so different again; I cannot get over the character and sound that David receives from his instrument. The Erhu is aching and calling to the cello as it sounds more like the plucking of a bass with a pedal. I am speechless at this point.
"Lament of the Fallen" takes a more serious (darker) approach to sound, texture, and mood. The power of this music is more evident now from the variety of the previous tracks offered. The piano and violin are not strange bedfellows by any means. The cello tends to add another chapter to the ongoing story with its long lines of reverberating sound and total emotional, atmospheric presence.
"The Walk Home" is short and sweet, under two minutes, but meaningful as the cello takes center stage to remind us of its emotional pull and prowess.
Other Worlds is another masterpiece that David Darling (who passed in 2021) left behind for us to ponder his incredible talents. I promise you will never hear a cello played like this.
Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck-NAMR Reviews Founder
October 29, 2024
Tracks:
1. Amelia (6:07)
2. Voyager (5:12)
3. Other Worlds (6:10)
4. Rendezvous (5:34)
5. The Pilgrimage (6:50)
6. The Benedictine (4:50)
7. Lament of the Fallen (3:32)
8. The Walk Home (1:56)
https://www.cultuurmania.com/music/music-2024
Patrick Van de Wiele
DAVID DARLING - OTHER WORLDS
Label: Curve Blue
https://curveblue.com/other-worlds
David Darling (1941-2021) was an American cellist who brought together a wide range of styles including classical, jazz, Brazilian, African, and Indian music with a holistic and cross-cultural approach to healing through music, cementing his legacy. In 2010, he won the GRAMMYⓇ Award for Best New Age Album for “Prayer for Compassion.” He performed and recorded with Bobby McFerrin, Paul Winter Consort, Ralph Towner, and Spyro Gyra, and released 15 recordings for ECM. “Other Worlds” showcases Darling’s reach beyond New Age into Jazz, Lounge, Electronic, and percussion. As a GRAMMY®-winning cellist, composer, educator, and collaborator, David Darling has redefined the way the cello is played and how music is taught, from teaching students to conducting orchestras to performing onstage. An innovative improviser, he draws from classical, country, jazz, rock, New Age and world music to create compositions that reach deep into the soul of listeners, allowing listeners to bring their own stories, meaning and consciousness to life. He has created a legacy of easy-floating, relaxing, dreamy, floating-on-clouds musical joy. Although he has been claimed as a New Age artist in recent years, this album reminds us of his musical diversity, enhanced by mixes that cross over into Lounge, Jazz and Classical, with his signature pizzicato, vocalizations, solo and choral cello expressions. With this album, he deviates from his original New Age focus and expands his repertoire with new perspectives on piano, electronic music and percussion, complemented by additional soloists, including virtuosos Jiebing Chen (Erhu, Zhonghu) and Lili Haydn (violin).
The album opens with a slow dialogue between piano and electronics on ‘Amelia’, which sounds meditative. Then hands create a pulse on ‘Voyager’, dedicated to both Voyager probes, a passionate story in a steady tempo, a running, uplifting, bright and easy feeling with intricate hand drums in a bright and airy tempo. The title track combines electronics with cello. A sly beat that picks you up, a floating cello that gives the listener something special with the percussion and string bass, almost a rasta groove at times. The piano provides a subtle delight, coaxing a melody from another place, bringing the sound of wonder that happily slows down with an undulating complex beat while the cello continues the flow. On ‘The Benedictine’ the piano is joined by strings for a sad and solemn melody, the sound is sometimes dark with candles. The track features a male choir that casts a somber mood, the cello often pizzicato and sometimes bowed, the feeling is uplifting as it progresses. Continuing in darkness but not with a heavy feeling, the closing track, ‘The Walk Home’ contains a solo cello that expresses the spirit of this fine music very directly.
This album also brings tracks where David Darling transcends himself, and brings a more cosmic sound.
DETAIL ALBUM
Tracks:
Composer and musician David Darling (1941-2021) left behind a body of unfinished works, several of which have been gathered together to form the divinely dream laden Other Worlds, released in October with the assistance of Ty Burhoe, Jiebing Chen and Lili Hayden each of whom, with innate skill, add an almost surreal dimension to the various compositions.
With posthumous work it is always a point of consideration as to what was the original intent and is the final recording one which in this instance, David Darling would approve. Mickey Houlihan of Curve Blue, long time friend and producer for David Darling, oversaw the release of Ocean Dreaming Oceanwith Hans Christian 2023 to wide acclaim and now Other Worlds, which again brings pieces into the light that may never have been enjoyed.
With the introduction Amelia, the seductive notes of piano immediately lead on to the intriguing question, who was Amelia, to have a piece of such intimate beauty created in her name.
Other Worlds, the song, is simply transcendental, containing many tempos; layers discovered almost by chance, once again drifting past gentle harmony before moving into the more specific Rendezvous with a delicate dance of piano and violin. Perfection.
The Pilgrimage, features the distinctive sound of the Erhu, coupled with a slight element of percussion, a delicate hint of vocals weaving in and out of the melody, to create a light and contemplative moment.
An enigmatic work which boarders on deeply felt emotion, tantalizingly light moments, offset with somber elements, is The Walk Home; prescient, maybe but intriguing in its singular sound, which draws a softly gentle moment in time to a thoughtful conclusion.
https://bluewolf-reviews.com/music/other-worlds/
Recently Mickey Houlihan and friends released a collection of David Darlings unfinished works titled Other Worlds.
From that he has created a most elegant tribute to the man and his music, as he takes a visual trip into space with the launch of the Voyager Space Craft as it journeys to far places, only captured in the imagination of those who dream of traveling into these wonderful and mysterious places.
David Darling, (1941-2021) Jiebing Chen and Ty Burhoe create form and void with the delicate tones of the erhu, perfect for developing that deep sense of mystery. Burhoe on gentle percussion makes this a perfect piece for dreaming.
Voyager is graceful with an infinite sense of floating captured in the melody. This clip of 5min 45 secs is well worth discovering and enjoying both visually and aurally.
Footage used included images and animations from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in CA and from the Deep Space Network at CSIRO/NASA/JPL.
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley December 29, 2024