Customer Reviews

Cusco 2000

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a big fan of Cusco's famous music, I don't have any constructive criticism to offer. This is a wonderful CD with its diverse rhythms, exotic instruments and rich melodies. It will be a welcome addition to the library of any enthusiast of new age music. Having said that, I am still partial to the excellent Apurimac series. I have all three and wouldn't sell them for any price. On this and other Cusco CD's, the listener is treated to some of the best music around! They are to me the masters of cross-cultural music...

Two years ago, I was vacationing at a friend's house, when on the first day I was there, she played this CD for me.

I was in the middle of a panic attack due to the trip, and she felt that listening to Cusco would calm me down. Even though I had never heard of this artist, I was willing to try anything.

Not only did it calm me down, but I found the music so beautiful that I listened to it every chance I could that weekend. (I imagine even my friend would have liked hearing something different once or twice.)

When I returned home, I tried to find this great CD but was unsuccessful (looking in all the wrong places, I suppose). These past two years I have never forgotten the effect this music had on me, and I am now thrilled that I can finally listen to it again!

I will certainly buy his other CD's.

This CD is the first of two that have a collection of music scored by Cusco for the Heinz Seilmann TV show "Seilmann 2000" in Germany. The show was a 20-part series about the earth's environment and the problems wild animals have faced due to changes in the planet over the last three decades. Seilmann asked Cusco's Michael Holm and Kristian Schultze to arrange a number of their favorite works for a large-orchestra backdrop that he could use throughout the series. The group added strings, horns and woodwinds and then did a great job of melding their keyboards and panpipes with the "big orchestra" sound. A couple of their songs from earlier CDs appear here, Flying Condor from Apurimac and North Easter from Cool Island, along with a number of new ones that are equally as good. The lush orchestral cuts occasionally sound a little classical (Holm was classically trained on the flute) and, while the overall feel of this CD is not what some Cusco fans will call "typical Cusco", there is just enough of their catchy ethnic fusion rhythms to satisfy most of them. In Japan, the music of Cusco has been tagged with the label "Futuristic Romantic", and that pretty much fits the music on this CD. I believe 2000 is a little better than the follow-up, 2002, which has additional music from the Seilmann series. 2000 made it to the top ten in Billboard's Top Newage Album Chart in 1993, while 2002 peaked at number 15 the same year. My favorite Cusco CD is Apurimac III, but I'm one fan that would welcome more explorations into the sound and style of 2000. It's a worthy addition to any Cusco collection.

This is an awesome CD! It's not as good as the Apurimac album, but great nonetheless. I listen to Cusco as a means of stress relief, and this CD is perfect for my growing collection.

I remember I was like 8 years old when I first listened to Cusco. Liked the music pieces, although not too much because well... they sounded kind of weird in comparison to other New Age composers/performers I had listened to, like Enya or Kitaro. A couple of years ago I was then downloading some Cusco MP3s just to make some memory and found the orchestrated version of Flying Condor. It was a bang, and I immediately fell in love with the piece so much that I searched high and low for the CD that spawned this masterpiece. Found it on my uncle's collection, along with 2002. Bought both CDs and believe me, my conception of New Age music changed radically. Like New Age? Like classical music? Get this one and 2002 and you'll find an excellent combination of both genres. Believe me, you won't be disappointed.

Especially the song "Flying Condor". It is so epic and amazing. It feels like itelevates your mind to a euphoric sweeping panorama of somewhere that existed millions of years ago.

It is a wonder that these musicians have been inspired by real places in the world. Even my own backyard (Canada- Last Paradise; for anyone playing the home game).

It is amazing the range of moods that blossom in front of us here. South America has, obviously, the kind of flamenco latin style electronics happening, then you move to songs like Noth Easter or opener Islands of the Galapagos which carry very dramatic forboding riffs to them.

This disc is a must have for anyone who needs something really deep to think to, have guests over, or whatever you may do that requires the music to work for you.

Want to give your speakers a work out? I highly recommend this very energetic and moving CD! I even took it to the music store to purchase my new speakers using "Rhythm of the Wilderness"; the salesperson even liked it! Awesome use of percussion with synthesizers...very mood lifting. I have all of Cusco's albums because of this CD. You won't be disappointed!

This album is one of my favorite from Cusco, as I find that the upbeat tempo of many of the songs really helps liven up my morning drive. I recommend listening to it while driving twisty backroads in the mountains of Oregon in a German automobile on a sunny summer afternoon. I am surprised that it hasn't been used in car commercials yet!

This album is good and mostly is like is dream music and New Age music. It's good.