The music of Carlos Nino has just gotten more and more spiritual as the years go on – and that's really saying a lot, given how spiritual he was right at the start! But with recent records, Nino has transformed from a jazz-inspired musician to maybe more of a sonic astronaut – able to take organic moments of expression and weave them into a rich tapestry of tone, color, and life – almost as if he's reworking the plane of existence, and trying to find the door to greater enlightenment in the process! That approach definitely comes through here, as Nino opens up in the company of contributors who include Jamael Dean on piano and keyboards, Devin Daniels on alto, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on strings, Jesse Peterson on guitar, Sam Gendel on alto, and Jamire Wiliams on drums – as well all players whose work appears in different ways on a variety of tracks – all helmed by the sonic exploration of Carlos, with a bit of help from veteran travelers Iasos and Laraaji. Titles include "Explorations 7", "Actually", "For The Shapalaceer", "Luis' Special Shells", "Jamirelandflight", "Waterwavesarrival", "In The Moment", "Youwillgetthroughthis I Promise", "Dreamsishappening", and "Recurrent Reiki Dreams". (Jazz, New Age) CD

Very organic, very meditative music from Klaus Weise – not the famous German drummer of a similar name, but a more obscure sonic pioneer – and one who works here to mix together ideas from Eastern spirituality with a hauntingly abstract approach to instrumental music! This first volume in the Qumra series features the long "Palace Of Mirrors" suite, broken up into four passages – beautifully glowing sounds created through the use of singing bowls, tambura, zither, cymbal, and drums – plus natural sounds from birds and the human voice, the last of which is very transformed in the recording, past the point of recognition! CD

Very organic, very meditative music from Klaus Weise – not the famous German drummer of a similar name, but a more obscure sonic pioneer – and one who works here to mix together ideas from Eastern spirituality with a hauntingly abstract approach to instrumental music! This second volume of the Qumra series extends things out a bit from the first – still continuing Weise's experiments with "natural sound", evoked from both the human voice in a very transformed state – next to slowly-building sounds on singing bowls, cymbal, zither, drums, and tambura – all woven together in a really lovely soundscape! CD