Coming mostly from improvisation, these original compositions blend New Age, World Music, Native American Style Flute Music and Inter-Spiritual Chanting (non-denominational), as invitations to embark on heart-opening journeys, whether peaceful or passionate — with a reverence for the Sacred in life.
Transporting melodies feature especially the wooden Native American style flute, and are sometimes accompanied by mostly acoustic instruments such as violin, cello, piano, and voice, as well as soothing sounds from the Natural World. The quieter melodies are occasionally supported by a gentle heart beat rhythm on frame drum. These melodies have a soothing, relaxing, potentially healing effect that can support meditation, yoga, massage and other therapeutic practices; while the more passionate and dynamic melodies inspire an uplifting mood and potential call to move. A couple of longer flute melodies are evocative soundscapes, stirring the imagination to soar into the infinite, like a bird’s flight across the wide open sky over a vast, serene sea.
In some tracks, the use of repetition of simultaneous musical parts induces a flow state. A couple of inter-spiritual chants further build on the power of repetition as a spiritual practice to tune the heart and mind to the Divine Presence and Sacred Oneness of All Life.
Much gratitude goes to all those who contributed to making this CD a positive reality. BIG, heart-felt thanks to Spirit, my teachers, my family for their unconditional love and support, including my mother Josiane Naud for her beautiful painting on this cover– I picked that particular painting because it appeared in a dream on a bigger scale, then became alive, showing me the horses celebrating together in the sunlight. Thanks also to my recording/mixing mentor and friend Dan Shklair; to all my friends, including Darius Kaufmann for advising and improvising on bass flute in Wolves Medicine; to Helen Yee for playing the violin parts; Josh Epstein for playing the cello parts; Cheryl Stockton for the beautiful photos; David Darling and my friends at Music for People for having transformed my life through the gift of heart-centered music improvisation in community; Karl Hamilton for graciously authorizing me to use his great nature sound recordings; Arielle Zoeller for the beautiful CD cover layout; David Glasser for the masterful mastering; to the Natural World, and the Native American people whose wisdom continues to teach and inspire me.
The CD title was given me via my intuition. After receiving this title, I remembered that I had an old recording of a Native flute improvisation called “Union” so I looked for it. It had two tracks: The flute and the background vocal improvisations. I renamed it “Sacred Union” and finished it up.
I now finally understand where “CDBaby” got its name…. Making this CD felt like a labor of love…except it took much more than 9 months… I found, after years of working on that one CD, that there is an infinity of depth in the act of listening…listening…again and again…each time as if for the first time…and going deeper into the layers of possibilities of creation…. It’s sometimes a different creative process from just improvising, especially because I did most of the work from A to Z, but it still felt very creative and satisfying to keep refining the music. I am glad it’s DONE though!
The CD is available through https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/joelledanant (That’s where I was able to choose the 30-second clips for the tracks), also on Amazon (clips are less interesting there), iTunes, and other channels. Also visit: www.joelledanant.com
Dedicated to the benefit of the One and All.
With gratitude and blessings,
Joëlle Danant
About the Recording Artist
Read more about Joëlle Danant.