SpaBeat: “Visions and Healing” a cool breeze in a Southwestern landscape

By Jessica Skropanic on June 16, 2009 in Mood, Music / no comments / Print This Post

by Ben Tavera King

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Readers familiar with my other SpaBeat reviews will know that I am always impressed when a CD is deep and serious without the melancholia that often accompanies spa or meditation music. Guitarist Ben Tavera King (“Sedona Sunset”) has teamed up with The Native Flute Ensemble (“Spirit Wind”) to create “Visions and Healing,” a CD that pulls this off flawlessly.

This nine-track CD incorporates traditional European string instruments including 12-string guitar with Native wooden flutes. All are artfully played as if they were created to be together. The flutes evoke a definite Southwestern feel but heat and sun are cooled by the strings.

This is one of the most holistic musical experiences I've had in a long time. Although each piece completely stops before the next begins, there is no feeling of being “jolted” into a new track. Listeners using the CD for meditation, massage or yoga will not lose their line of thinking or be pulled from their “happy place” by dramatic changes in tempo. The experience is fluid.

Because the transitions between tracks is so smooth, it's almost impossible to have one favorite – although if you pinned me down I'd say that I found “Flute Meditation” (track 5) and “Grandma Emma's Healing Bells” (track especially exquisite for their depth of feeling. Other track titles include “Within the Lodge,” “Shaman's Touch,” “Medicine Tones,” “Healer's Melody,” “Embers and Strings,” “Strings and Feathers,” and “Rattles, Flutes and Feathers.”