CD: Circles Of Light
Artist: Peter Sterling
Contact: www.harpmagic.com

 

Over the last few decades, music in this genre has been recorded in a variety of interesting locations and power spots including the Great Pyramid, the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge, Mt. Shasta, Machu Picchu, Sedona, and others. For this album Peter Sterling traveled from California to Wiltshire, England to record in the famous crop circles that are found in that area. A crop circle is defined as “a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop such as wheat, barley, rye, and others. Crop circles are also referred to as crop formations, because they are not always circular in shape.” To date, there have been approximately ten thousand of them reported in twenty-six countries, although a good percentage of them tend to appear in southern England. These formations, which are often amazingly intricate and quite beautiful, represent one of the greatest mysteries of our time. Where they come from and who creates them is a question that has yet to be answered definitively. However, a popular belief is that they are extraterrestrial in origin. Visitors and researchers to these sights have reported incredible experiences and phenomena that often defy explanation.

 

 

 Peter Sterling is an award-nominated recording artist who has produced approximately a dozen albums of new age music, as well as being a workshop leader and lecturer on various aspects of metaphysics including the power of sound, vibration, sacred geometry, and more. This focus is evident in this latest CD release “Circles Of Light.” The primary instrument used in the crop circles was the wind harp, along with crystal bowl, zither, and Tibetan bell. The sound of the wind harp (in which the music is created by wind blowing through the strings) is one of the most fascinating I’ve ever heard. We usually associate the harp with its customary plucked strings, arpeggios, and cascades of strummed notes. Played in this manner, attention is drawn to the sound of individual strings. However, with the wind harp, they blend together into a collective sound that reminded me more of ethereal chords played on a synthesizer. The sound of the wind harp was later enhanced in post-production by use of a special reverb, which highlights the higher octaves that are normally inaudible to the human ear. The result is hauntingly beautiful and quite unique. I loved the interplay of earth and air elements coming together so serendipitously to create this mystical tonality. There are also sections where Peter plucks and strums the strings in the traditional manner.

 

As mentioned, this is a live album, recorded in the middle of a field, so the pristine quality of a studio production is not to be expected. However, this is one of the things I really liked about this project. Hearing the wind blow and footsteps walking in the grain gives you a feeling of being there. I listened to the album through headphones with eyes closed and was transported by it. In the liner notes, Peter talks about how the sound of the wind moving through the strings creates high frequency harmonics that interact with our subtle energy fields and elevates our state of consciousness. I can say that I did feel quite up-lifted after the experience. It should be noted that this recording is more about sonics, vibration, and sacred space than about “music” in the traditional sense of melody, harmony, rhythm, etc. although there are a bit of those elements present, especially in the second half. But as Peter states, it is “optimally used for meditation, healing, and spiritual activation.” This is a deeply metaphysical endeavor created by a visionary recording artist who is devoted to the evolution of consciousness as we move deeper into the 21st century and particularly towards the much-prophesied time of 2012. While the phenomenon of crop circles is enigmatic and leaves us with many questions, after hearing this album, I wonder if perhaps, “the answer is blowing in the wind.”