2. Bjornoya - John Praw
3. Deliquesce - Benjamin Dauer
4. Snow Flake And Fire Place - Lucette Bourdin
5. The Calf Before - Ambienteer
6. Moon Song 2 (Long Night) - Bing Satellites
7. Living Inside A Snow Globe - Leonardo Rosado
8. Crackly Embers - Elypixa
9. Silver Leaf Gold - Miranda
10. Winterscape 1 - Sounds The Songs of Seabirds
11. Tumble Down - Ambienteer
12. Waiting For The Cover Of White - Altus
13. O Holy Night - Phillip Wilkerson
A man of many and sometimes unexpected talents, The King Of Jingaling, Brad Ross-MacCleod--the beloved and revered proprietor of FaLaLaLaLa.com-- is also the host of an Ambient music Internet radio program, "Free Floating", which is part of the Ambient StillStream network. For the unitiated, Ambient music can cover quite a bit of ground. Some New Age music would be considered Ambient. Some not so much. Same with Electronica. Some artists whom you might see in a Progressive Rock play list might qualify, too, such as Brian Eno or Vangelis. Ambient music is all about arranging the music in such a way as to provoke certain kinds of sensations and visualizations. "Free Floating" is actually a pretty decent description. Of course, this explanation is coming from someone who has a minimal understanding of the form, me, even if I enjoy some of the music.
Some time ago, The King sent out a call to Ambient artists through his show and corresponding blog to compose and/or record a piece that represented the winter/solstice/holiday season to them. The result of that call is "All Is Calm", a Creative Commons collection freely available for download through the Free Floating site. With one exception, Phillip Wilkerson's beautiful rendition of "O Holy Night", these are not the kind of "Christmas" songs you've heard before. These are miniature winter symphonies of a kind that, hopefully, will cause you to experience the more calming sensations of the season--like a 4:00 A.M. snow flurry when, otherwise "all is calm". My personal favorite, here, Lucette Bourdin's "Snow Flake And Fire Place", had exactly that sort of effect on me. Also, it's kind of hard not to like an artist with the name "Bing Satellities". Sample the collection and/or download it free at the Free Floating web site. "All Is Calm" could be just the antidote you seek for the general chaos of the holiday season.