Tibet

Like Deborah Martin's fusion of Native American music and contemporary ambient music on albums like DEEP ROOTS, HIDDEN WATER, this album explores the indigenous music of a specific region through a Western New Age sensibility. With the help of Cheryl Gallagher, who plays electric harp, percussion, and electronics on the album, Martin draws on the native music of Tibet in a way that highlights its expansive, spiritual aspects. Martin herself plays a variety of percussion and electronics while other musical guests lend guitar, flute, drums, and djembe to the mix, creating a swirling, heady vortex of sound. With "Essence" and "Seeker and Sought," the track titles point to a deeper consciousness informing these compositions, and one can imagine TIBET making an excellent musical accompaniment to one's trek up the Himalayas. Martin's sound designs are abstract and ambient enough to suit meditation and yogic practices, but are musically textured and complex enough to avoid the "aural wallpaper" trap endemic to some New Age music.