Ice Flowers Melting: Music for Kantele, The Finnish Folk Zither

Sylvan Grey | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: January 1, 1981
• Label: Fortuna Records
• Copyright: 1981 Fortuna Records
• Total Length: 1:01:39
• Genres: Pop/Euro Pop, Pop/Pop Rock
• ASIN: B000QZSZW4
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,541 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interminable Inner Journeying, June 4, 2007

By 

cvairag (Allan Hancock College) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Ice Flowers Melting: Music for Kantele, The Finnish Folk Zither (Audio CD)

Sylvan Grey is one of the world's greatest musicians. The relatively obscure instrument she plays, the Kantele, demands so much from the player that very few musicians in the world would attempt such an extended solo recital as we have here, even if some degree of mastery had been attained. To describe the Kantele as a Zither is somewhat misleading because of the connotations that far more basic versions of that instrument have in America. Really, this multi-stringed instrument produces a rich harplike sound, the registers of the chords are quite dense, with harpsicord-like timbres, producing long resonances when struck, which overlap in the magnificent progressions Grey develops. Grey's music is exceedingly complex, intricate, multi-layered, deeply thought and felt, and painstakingly conceived.
"Ice Flowers" was Grey's brilliant 1981 debut recording, only one of two recordings she has released in the past quarter century! Yes. That's the testimony to how seriously this virtuoso artist takes her music.
This recording is perfect "in the car". If you're muddling through a snowstorm, or rainstorm, or slowly progressing on a long journey, there is really no more appropriate disk, for this deeply reflective music seems to record the long flow of the sequences of endless inner journeying which comprise our lives. We don't quite know where we're heading, but we are assured of reaching some further end.
I would therefore advise first listening to this remarkable disk in your vehicle on a long drive before sitting down with it at home. Let yourself be held captive to this spellbinding statement of a true master.
One of the all time greatest "new age" performances, all sounds being produced, blissfully, without any help from electronic instruments or synthesizing devices.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Plucky Repetition in Flat Repose, July 26, 2006

By 

Sea Knight (Northern CA, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ice Flowers Melting: Music for Kantele, The Finnish Folk Zither (Audio CD)

I returned this. It sounded interesting on the soundbytes- made me want to hear more- contemplative I hoped, kaleidoscoping simple strings with great moments but it doesn't change enough or bring emotions from me deeply or passionately. There were no climaxes. It's very repetitive and drawn out. The titles and picture are pretty but I didn't feel much of Finland or transported anywhere but perhaps to be more careful in the sensibility to try for other cultures' music to know them better and enjoy. I was intrigued, then bored and annoyed- and the marketplace seller got annoyed and arrogant towards me for returning it. I think the things titled for are more interesting, alive, and spirited than evocated. Maybe as far as zithers go, it's expert technically but it seemed too much one pace also, like a Japanese instrument never slowed enough to appreciate.