It's a Mystery

Lorraine Rousseau & Robert Carlton, Lorraine Rousseau | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 1, 1997)
• Original Release Date: January 1, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Arrow Records
• ASIN: B00000JN4F
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #768,904 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Frank Macek, Host of Sunday Soundscapes on 107.3FM, WNWV, The Wave, Cleveland, OH

You cant help but feel you are taking a musical journey through a world of unique sounds when you listen to Rousseau and Carltons new release, Its a Mystery. The emotion you get from the CD is like jumping into a sea of tranquility and cooling off from a hot summer day with lush melodies, thoughtful interpretations and compelling compositions. The CD is perfect for any mood. New Age and Contemporary Jazz music lovers alike will enjoy the album, as it has something for both tastes. Rousseau and Carlton are indeed the next Tingstad and Rumbel or Speer and Lanz in terms of how well they compliment each others playing. The chemistry between them just works. Be sure to check out the tracks From Now On, Your Sweet Smile and So In Love and let us know what you think.

Product Description

It's a Mystery is an exciting collection of contemporary instrumental compositions that feature Lorraine Rousseau on flute and Robert Carlton on guitar with keyboards (Gordon Sheard), sax (Vernon Dorge), bass(Scott Alexander), drums and percussion (Brian Leonard). Rousseau and Carlton create a musical tapestry that includes the textures and colors of new age, pop, smooth jazz and world music. It’s a Mystery has charted in the top twenty on radio across the USA, Canada and Europe and was heard daily in over 2.5 million homes across Canada on the Cable TV Guide Channel.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A CD filled with easy-going and engaging music, June 15, 2000

By 

Bill Binkelman, Wind and Wire (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's a Mystery (Audio CD)

One of the musical genres that gets slighted a lot is adult contemporary instrumental music. This CD from Lorraine Rousseau and Robert Carlton is an exceptional example of "commercial" (that is, accessible and radio-friendly) music done with warmth, sincerity and tons of talent. The music on It's A Mystery includes songs of various tempos and emotional moods (from cheerful to a little funky to sweetly romantic) and all of it is so well-done that to fault this recording because it's in the wrong genre (i.e. it's smooth jazz/AC) is narrow-minded in the extreme.

If all smooth jazz and AC music were as good as the songs on this recording, I would hope it would be played everywhere. It's A Mystery is so much better than most of what passes for "music" in this genre that I have no problem recommending it highly. If you're looking for great sunny afternoon music or a CD to play for dinner guests, this is the ticket right here!

5.0 out of 5 stars Writings by Serge Kozlovsky, February 5, 2011

By 

Serge Kozlovsky (Minsk, Belarus) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's a Mystery (Audio CD)

The past is history, the present is a gift and the future... it's a mystery". Namely to these words (being the citation from a book by Deepak Chopra named "Seven Spiritual Laws of Success") is obliged the name of this album. And this is not an accidental thing, because Lorraine Rousseau and Robert Carlton create music containing admiration before the existence. It is very beautiful, romantic and a little bit mysterious. Also it is melodically perfect (here the classical music education obtained by these two musicians in Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music). Still, this is not the main thing. In the music by Rousseau and Carlton is a delicate and hardly perceptible fragrance. This is a fragrance of standing on the threshold of something new and unknown. You are just ready to begin the journey and you are glad to have this meeting - meeting with the unknown. This joy is a little bit worrying and intriguing, as a joy of a child, waiting for the new game to begin.

Main characters of "It's a Mystery" are the soft flute of Lorraine and accompanying Robert's guitar having soft nylon strings. But these characters are not lonely: in the record of the album took part a whole group of excellent musicians, who made the arrangements rich and juicy. These are Gordon Sheard (keyboards), Vernon Dorge (saxophone), Scott Alexander (bass) and Brian Leonard (percussion). It should me added that the sounding of some compositions (for example «Forever You» or «From Now On» is close to smooth jazz, which brings a refinement to the music. «It's a Mystery» begins with wonderfully beautiful, purely new age theme «Your Sweet Smile», which sets a tone to the whole album. In general, the album can be characterized, as an "elegant new age". I have found a definite similarity of the music by by Rousseau and Carlton with the music by one more remarkable musician - Bernward Koch.

So, it is not surprising that «It's a Mystery» has won a broad recognition from the listeners. It was recorded as long as three years. Here, I have to say only one thing: listen to «It's a Mystery» and plunge into a lacy stream of soft harmonies, plaited by two "ordinary" magicians - Lorraine Rousseau and Robert Carlton.

Serge Kozlovsky
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