Regular Columnists

Artist: John Barnard
Website: http://www.calmingmusic.com/
Genre: New Age
CD Review:
What can be said about the relaxation of Barnard’s Beyond the Clouds has already been exposed in the previous reviews on his The Changing Years, Araluen, and When Your Eyes Kissed Mine cds. But to briefly remind, John Barnard’s music is aimed at the new age in all of us. The simple skill of picking out notes on a piano in front of the old world backing strings, to produce a yawn, a stifled heartbeat, a drug-free alternate to pill taking on long trips.

That’s why British Airways commissioned the Araluen album; that’s why they used a few recordings, in their entirety, on the day trips from Australia to the rest of the world. From down under himself, John knows how to lift you back into the clouds even higher than the plane that flies you. And his string sections are apparently keyboards, which sound much better than the norm. Damn if the stuff doesn’t sound real to me.

If one song or album sounds much like another, it really doesn’t matter. You’re getting these for cleansing purposes, to listen and drift and look deep inside yourself. Atheist or not, you will love this little sleeping pill. Who knows. This might be what heaven will sound like.