Sharon West’s Notes from the Woods was inspired within her by years of nature walks through gardens, parks, and The Morton Arboretum. Sharon’s works capture the diversity of nature's gifts with a unique blend of sounds ranging from what is considered New Age to World Music, along with a hint of Jazz. Instruments include piano, strings, flutes, harps, oboes, trumpets, guitars, percussions, soothing choirs, and woodland drums. Sharon’s musical celebration of the beauty and tranquility of nature creates a mood of contemplative and reflective ambience within one while listening to this album, which is not only inspiring, but also enables the listener to do some soul-searching while journeying with the music. Each piece is filled with harmonious sounds that allow one to truly see, feel, hear, and touch the rich abundance of the varied types of life and their meaning within the natural world.
During some of the compositions, I felt as if I were traversing merrily through the woods in awestruck wonder drinking in its beauty and wisdom. Other songs created a feeling within me that the animals were telling tales of their life within the woods. There were times that the sounds reminded me of when the dawn first begins each morning in the woods with everything waking up, happily greeting the new day at hand. Sometimes the melodies evoked within me a feeling of nature gently stretching, awakening from slumber as if in rebirth, which gave me a sense of the dance of life. Each time I listen to this magnificent album, I find that the feelings I received when first listening are growing and/or maturing along with noting the new perceptions/emotions that I hitherto had not felt before.
Personally, I truly enjoy the majestic sounds that are found within natural world, so this albums recreation as it were of natures’ sounds truly resonated within me. I highly recommend this album. ~review by Lone Eagle Eye
Artist: Sharon West
DustyDreams Productions 2006
