BRATTLEBORO — Before they debut their first album with a Oct. 6 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, FLOW, the new group assembled by the Brattleboro-based Grammy Award winner and Windham Hill Records founder Will Ackerman, will play a sneak preview concert at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro on Wednesday, Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m.
In addition to Ackerman, the group features world-class instrumentalists: acoustic guitarist Lawrence Blatt, Australian pianist/vocalist Fiona Joy, and flugelhorn virtuoso Jeff Oster.
The album was recorded in the West River Valley of Vermont at Imaginary Road Studios, the longtime creative home base of maverick businessman, Grammy-winning producer, and acoustic guitarist Will Ackerman. An arbiter of acoustic excellence for the past 25 years, Ackerman has produced more than 25 Gold- and Platinum-selling records.
Musicians from around the world have come to Imaginary Road Studios to absent themselves from modern life while they're creating and to partake in the legacy of Windham Hill Records, the iconic new age label Ackerman founded in the late 1970s. The music produced from Windham Hill defined a powerful yet peaceful sonic aesthetic that continues to influence decades after its launch.
That influence extends into a truly new age with FLOW.
Born out of long term friendships with a history of playing together, FLOW is not only an unusual anagram of their names (Fiona, Lawrence, Oster, Will) but also reflects the foursome's seamless organic vibe, and the graceful ease with which each of the album's 11 tracks streams into the next.
The concept of FLOW had its origins in 2015, when Blatt invited Joy and Oster to join him at Imaginary Road Studios to create an album inspired by the iconic Windham Hill sound and ensembles. Ackerman had already produced several of Fiona Joy's and Oster's albums, plus Blatt's recordings The Color of Sunshine, Emergence, and Latitudes and Longitudes featuring Oster on horn.
It was Blatt's passion for jazz fusion that actually sparked the idea of an ensemble.
“The inspiration comes from Chick Corea's classic 70's all-star band Return To Forever with Stanley Clarke and Al Di Meola, who joined forces, wrote music and produced a sound that was more powerful than any of their individual works,” he said in a news release. “That was the idea, bringing great musicians together with this kind of concept.”
Blatt added, “When I started thinking about who it might be, my thoughts turned naturally to Jeff and Fiona. We got together at my place in San Francisco [and] we knew pretty quickly that this was going to develop into something. We talked with Will and previewed some of the ideas we were working on. His involvement as a producer and then, when invited as a full-fledged member was a natural outgrowth of the process we started in my home.”
“Music has its own power,” Joy said. “It can touch people, give solace, heal. All we can do is offer the music to our audience and hope there is something positive they can take from it.”
No one would argue that modern life today is more stressful than ever. Despite all the conveniences and luxuries available to many, actual quality of life and relationships have not evolved as swiftly.
Speaking to this point, Oster said that “certainly, now more than ever, peaceful breathing and listening is deeply important. It's not only New Age music, it is Every Age music! Timeless in that it speaks to something we all desire. Ease. A deep breath. A smile. Happiness. A bottle of wine, some cheese, a blanket, all with your love, a quiet night in the darkness listening.
“That is what this music is, those places are where it lives and belongs. New Age music for all ages.”