Customer Reviews

Soul Mates & Kindred Spirits

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These tunes are very familiar-sounding, not sure why, as I don't think I ever heard this CD before. The guitar is soft, and ambient sounds such as ocean waves are used in some of the songs.

This is very professionally-produced music, sounding quite polished but not, hmm,well, how do I put this, music fans, this is not major "ART" with a capital "A" and so forth. This is kick-back, have-a-glass-of-chardonnay, chill-out-before-bedtime music. To that end, I recommend this CD for relaxation uses--kids will love this, massage therapists will rejoice, quiet lovers will like it, and sleepers who face a white night might like this in their bedside CD player. It's good dinner music--nothing to jar the diner and provides a quiet atmosphere.

I did like two songs particularly "Listening" and "Summer, Spring, Winter, and Fall" which were very meditative and slow. This is a fine background CD.

Have you ever had one of those days? You wake up on the wrong side of the bed. You stub your toe getting out of bed. You burn your toast. Miss the bus. Late in to work and the boss yells at you. You miss a deadline, you miss lunch, and then you miss the bus again. You pay an exorbitant fee for a taxi home, and when you get there you find that there's nothing for dinner. Well,...you're not alone. That is when you need a Soul Mate & Kindred Spirit. Pop this cd into your stereo and let these gorgeous sounds relax and restore you. The only thing it cannot do is stop the grumbling in your belly...so go get some food. Food and this cd...YEP...you'll go to bed feeling restored...guaranteed. :)

The guitar is intensely personal in an impersonal world. There is no obstacle between the instrument and the heart - only a slight layer of skin on the finger tips. The guitar is a small voice in the midst of the world's noise. That is why the world is listening. ~Andres Segovia

Bradley Powell's music is infused with natural ambience. As rich sounds renew your spirit, you can relax into a deep sigh of the heart. His style is artistic, heart healing and filled with romantic and cultural influences. This is a blend of soulful Spanish, velvet jazz and dreamy classical guitar. The sounds range from crystal clarity to deep ocean echoes.

This rich landscape of sounds is perfect for inducing dreams and ancient memories or for creating ocean atmospheres for luxurious warm scented baths with sea salts. I love the delicate mingling of ocean sounds recorded at Huntington Beach and Malibu. These sounds were recorded by Bradley Powell and they help to create a mood of reflection.

Bradley Powell's flawless playing allows you to completely relax into sleep or relax into an evening of candlelight and romance. I've fallen into a peaceful sleep while listening to this music and have also spent relaxing afternoons reading while The Candlelight Guitarist wove an intricate tapestry of sounds to nurture my heart.

Throughout the 16 instrumental tracks, there is a spontaneous mingling of sounds that is reminiscent of a soulful conversation with a friend. The notes dance together creating an array of textures and sounds.

The beautiful cover art is an original painting by Claire Kitcher. Her art seems to reflect the mood on this CD and I must say Bradley Powell's music is definitely art. To soothe a soul into a tranquil space of musical paradise is definitely a skill that requires the participation of an artist's heart.

~The Rebecca Review

The talented and creative Bradley Powell is the Candlelight Guitarist. His music is original and some of the most soul soothing I have ever heard. "Soul Mates and Kindred Spirits" is his second CD and is sure to receive the same warm reception as his first, "Music For Rest And Renewal." The original release had Mr. Powell playing solo on the acoustic guitar, accompanied by sounds from nature, including the ocean, birds, rainfall, a stream and waterfall, fireside and night sounds. This latest offering has more of a contemporary, romantic, smooth jazz sound, which is good, although I'm a nature person myself. I live in NYC and am really deprived of natural white noise.

Other musicians join Powell on the 16 new tracks offered here, adding a fuller instrumental sound to the mix. A few of my favorites include, "Gift of the Heart," backed by strings, as well as some of the sounds of nature I am so taken with. "Wild Ponies," with its percussion rhythm, is a track I particularly enjoy, as well as many of the cuts with flute accompaniment.

I often come home from work stressed-out to the max, put this CD on and after a while the tension just flows away to the strains of this easy-on-the-ears music. A perfect instrumental album to play during a cozy dinner for two, or on a rainy Sunday afternoon - just the right sound for kicking back and relaxing. Accompanying Powell here are kindred spirits, Joey Cataldo on drums; Perez D'Agostino, percussion; Gilberto Hildavio, alto, soprano and bass flutes, English horn, clarinets; Mark Massey, Rhodes piano (on cuts 3, 12, 14); Darius Channing, keyboards; Mark Adams, French horn; and David Siebels, conductor on tracks 2, 8, 16.

The artist features a quotation on his Website, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which is extremely appropriate to the music he makes, "Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting -- a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I highly recommend "Soul Mates and Kindred Spirits." It has quiet soul and is good for the heart.

JANA

Bradley Powell, playing as the `Candelight Guitarist' has composed a lovely and enjoyable CD in SOUL MATES & KINDRED SPIRITS that one can at once sense his affinity for the instrument as he loves, caresses and plays it as one would their lover. He plays it moodily, playfully and imbues his audience with both a sense of peace (tracks Kindred Spirits, Giving Wings) and playfulness (Two Pairs of Old Soft Shoes) along with plenty of other tracks that were also wonderfully produced and played.

I found this to be a sensitive and very relaxing CD that would be a perfect companion on a long drive or just kicking back with your significant other or a fabulous book! AND not to make light of the music but I not only found the music delightful but I thought that the original cover art of the album was also most excellent and right in tune with the tunes!

Candlelight Guitarist Bradley Powell does a nice job of combining his soothing guitar melodies with other instruments--including bass, drums, flutes, woodwinds, horns, piano, and keyboards--as well as some soft ocean sounds. The result is a sort-of upbeat, pleasant background soundtrack which works well to set a relaxing mood at home, work, or in the car. Personally, I favor Powell's previous album, Music for Rest & Renewal, which I found to be a bit simplier: soft and slower with less instruments and more nature. However, those who prefer their instrumental music to be a bit more lively are likely to enjoy this CD.

"Candlelight" and "Candleflame Guitarist" Bradley Powell plays a very relaxed instrument as he interprets sixteen of his own compositions. Perhaps he's a little too relaxed. Maybe he ought to jump and jive a little, kick off his shoes and scuff up his feet.

And then again there is a time for everything under heaven, and Brad is thinking of friends and lovers as he strums so carefully, so lightly, so dreamily. One can feel that in the music and see it in the titles of some of the pieces: "Found a New World in a Friend"; "The Buddy System (Fugue for Fast Friends)" (maybe there's a pun there on that last one and a message); "You Inspire Me," etc. Powell mixes in a bit of nature's sounds to accompany him. The result is elevator music for the soul.

The Candlelight Guitarist has done it again - created an album of music for the guitar, incidental instruments, and nature sounds that, while it may not be the quiet atmosphere for solitude that makes his album MUSIC FOR REST & RENEWAL so popular, it demonstrates other aspects of this very talented composer and performer. All of the tracks on this well engineered CD reflect his sensitivity for friends as soul mates and fellow spirits. The range of composition is varied and sophisticated and is more celebratory than his previous album. Yes, these are tunes with friends in mind and thus are happy and listener friendly. Powell is supported by some fine instrumentalists here but somehow, for this listener he is best in the solo tracts where is supple technique is most apparent. And though `Giving Wings' closes the album with an almost Albinoni orchestral intro, he develops the lovely melody with what sounds to be keyboards simulation of orchestra - maybe this is what he has in mind for his next project, a guitar concerto! By the way the CD fades into the atmosphere with the sound of waves and the composer's dogs in the background and this touch reminds us just how warmly human is The Candlelight Guitarist.

I was given this CD by Bradley Powell to review.My taste in music is completly different,but I really enjoyed "Soul Mates and Kindred Spirits."The peacefull sounds of the Ocean waves,the arangments,and the fantastic Guitar of Brad was like taking a wonderfull,Peacefull vacation.My favorite tracks are "Kindred Spirits,Wild Ponies,"and the last cut,"Giving Wings(to help each other fly)."Brads record would be great for parties,or just relaxing by yourself after a hard day.

In 2001, Bradley Powell released a CD entitled "Music for Rest and Renewal" under the name The Candlelight Guitarist: stirred by that September's events, and as his contribution to the healing process that followed and that is still ongoing. Three years later, he returned with "Soul Mates & Kindred Spirits;" like the 2001 album a collection of gentle guitar melodies, but this time adding not only nature sounds, flutes and oboes but also other instruments, such as string bass, drums and percussion, keyboards, and French horn.

Powell picked up his first guitar at age ten and later had the opportunity to study, inter alia, with jazz guitarist Joe Pass, Dr. Ronald Purcell (including one master class taught by Andres Segovia), and David Rose of "Little House on the Prairie" fame. It is that latter influence, and his work with studio composer Mike Post, that shines through here more than on "Music for Rest and Renewal:" Whereas on his first CD, his guitars are soothing voices speaking to all those looking for a few moments of peace and quiet, many of the pieces on "Soul Mates and Kindred Spirits" indicate a composer visualizing his topics as well as hearing them: There are those little horses' fast hooves in "Wild Ponies," there is the multi-voiced interaction of a group of friends in "The Buddy System," as well as the progress, but also the harmony of the seasons in "Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall," you do see those "Two Pairs of Old Soft Shoes" sauntering and gallivanting about, and you can picture some of those Soul Mates "Giving [each other] Wings" to help each other fly, as the closing piece's subtitle suggests. Most of the pieces are upbeat and, generally, faster than those on "Music for Rest and Renewal," but there are also a few slower, reflective tracks reminiscent of the first CD's general mood (e.g. "Gift of the Heart," "Listening," "Forgive, Forget," and "Just Being There"). Powell's fingerstyle technique is clear and a particular joy to listen to on the pieces that, like the better part of his first CD, put his guitars front and center: "Listening," "Forgive, Forget," "In the Moment" (inspired, as the subtitle suggests, by the astronomical snapshot of Earth and Mars at 2:51 AM during the night of August 27, 2003; and thus again reflecting a visual stimulation), as well as "Just Being There" and "Air for Soul Mates."

Contacted by email, Mr. Powell was reluctant to give specifics as to the types of guitars and strings used in the recording, but kindly confirmed that most of the pieces are played in standard tuning, with the guitar tuned down to D for only one track ("You Inspire Me"). He also mentioned the place that both guitars featured on this CD have in his life: one, his everyday companion; the other, a guitar that has been in his possession since college and has been fine-tuned by the hands of luthier Jose Oribe.

With his music, Bradley Powell wants to take you to a place "where tension is cast off, simplicity is embraced, the physical body is most relaxed, and the inner spirit is lifted up," he writes on his website; and he continues: "You don't really *think* in this place (does a bird *think* about flying?) ... you fully participate in the moment. It's a peaceful place, where the heart finds joy." In that, Powell succeeds admirably.

Also recommended:

Music for Rest & Renewal (with nature sounds)

Sunflower Serenity ...Watercolor Odyssey (solos with nature sounds)

Golden Eagle: John Denver Instrumental Tribute

The Water Garden

A Windham Hill Retrospective

A Windham Hill Retrospective

Touch-Windham Hill 25 Years of Guitar

Guitar Virtuoso

Art of Segovia