Customer Reviews

Shape of the Land

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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A diamond, a masterpiece! I remember when this was first released and it was a bargain to behold. I couldn't pronounce the man's name Aceberg, Ahberg whatever but it was the first time I heard Philip Aaberg's work and I kept playing it around the clock. Now, it's June 2003 and I love to play it in the garden and sip on some chamomile tea and I laugh when kids come by and ask," what is that great sounding music?" It just seems to fit the out-of-doors.And bonus work from Will Ackerman and Michael Hedges add remarkable ambience.The music is dedicated to the memory of Naomi Uemura who, while travelling alone in 1984, disappeared descending Mount McKinley into an icy storm. Naomi Uemura was a bold, Japanese adventurer who ascended the highest mountains on all continents and rafted the entire Amazon River, alone.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day, and that means I dig into my collection of music I don't much play otherwise, and it may not necessarily be "seasonal" music. Instead, I tend to play some of the many Windham Hill albums from the mid/late 80s I have, which was then referred to as "new age" music. No idea how that nomiker came about, but whatever.

"The Shape of the Land" (released in 1986; 11 tracks; 40 min.) is the soundtrack to a documentary called "The Story of Naomi Uemura" (which I've never seen, by the way) but in reality it is an all-star collection of some of the Windham Hill greatest names at that times: Philip Aaberg (piano), Michael Hedges (guitar), Malcolm Dalglish (hammer dulcimer), Chuck Greenberg (lyricon)and of course Will Ackerman (the label's founder, guitar). This album is a delight from start to finish. Opener "Because It's There" showcases Michael Hedges. Philip Aaberg gets more tracks on here than anyone else, check out his beautiful piano playing on "Theme from Naomi Uemura" and "Come Back". The title tracks features an astounding interplay between Will Ackerman and Chuck Greenberg, one of the best tracks on here, as does "Processional". It all leads up to the last track of the album "Requiem for a Mountain Climber", where all of the all-stars are featured in a truly amazing fashion.

In the rich Windham Hill catalogue of the 1980s, "The Shape of the Land" is a highlight. Listening to this again now 23 years after the original release of this album, it sounds as fresh and innovative now as it did then, just remarkable. While it has absolutely no connection to the 'seasonal' music one is usually expecting for this time of the year, this album resonates just beautifully for the Thanksgiving/Christmas time of the year. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

It seems that I keep reviewing recordings currently out of print. Oh well, perhaps this will be reissued sometime in the future. For fans of the ORIGINAL vision of the Windham Hill record label in the early 1980's and the artists who recorded for it at the time, you really couldn't do much better than this.
This one doesn't play at all like a movie soundtrack. It seems the films director (or somebody involved with the original movie) were already fans of the Windham Hill label and requested a bunch of it's artists to come up with some new, original music for the movie's soundtrack. The soundtrack does not consist of tunes pulled from these artists indvidual recordings-most the stuff here it seems was recorded in January 1986 specifically for the movie soundtrack, though I can't be 100%sure of that.
So what we have here is primarily acoustic music as was the original M.O. of the label at the time.
The primary contributor here is pianist Phillip Aaberg-who also plays synthesizers as well. I'm not sure of this, as the only Aaberg recording I have is only solo piano, but I think this may be a rare example of Aaberg actually playing synthesizers (though i'm not sure of what he's been up to on his more recent recordings). His synthesizer playing here is excellent and tasteful, and adds nicely to his acoustic piano, with not a hint of some of the cheesey sounding samples that the 80's produced with it's early digital syntesizers . It's something I wish Aaberg would do more of. I'd certainly like to hear it.
Also along for the ride is guitarist Michael Hedges who plays harp guitar on 2 tracks, as well as Windham Hill founder William Ackerman playing guitar with Shadowfax founder (the late) Chuck Greenberg on lyricon on one track, and Ackerman on another duet with violionist Charles Bisharat on another track. There is also one very nice track with Philip Aaberg on synthesizers along with Malcolm Dalglish on hammered dulcimer. Very nice. Primarily though, most of the tracks feature Philip Aaberg either alone, in duet or trio with other musicians. The final piece on the album is the only piece to feature more than 3 musicians, a larger scale piece for 7 musicians (possibly also with some additional overdubs on the string parts) which has Aaberg joined by several string players, with guitars by Will Ackerman and Michael Hedges.
If you were/are a fan of any of those early Windham Hill multi-artist "samplers" or compilations you will simply love this. Let's just hope the current large corporate management who now owns the rights to the Windham Hill catalog see fit to reissue this at some point...or find a remaining copy here or elsewhere which I suggest as well....

What a gem from the glory years of Windham Hill. It is worth the price just for "Because It's There" by Michael Hedges, one of the most amazing pioneering guitar players of the 20th century. I had lost this disc about 10 years ago and OF COURSE it is out of print, so to find it was a treat. Thanks to the British chap who sent it to me. Now if I can only find a copy of "The Story Of Naomi Uemura", which is the movie that this album is the soundtrack for. Hey Windham Hill!! Get off your "new age" butts and reissue this thing and how about putting out the movie for us, or at least getting it to Netflix. I'd recommend this to anyone who loves good instrumental music.

"Shape of the Land" Soundtrack for the film called: "Uemura Naomi Monogatari" also known as "Lost In The Wilderness" (U.S.) 1986

Now I know where the confusion lies, and why I couldn't find this soundtrack CD. At long last! I have been trying to remember the title of the film this soundtrack was created for, and never could... after coming across a YouTube video of Michael Hedges playing "Because It's There." When I heard the first few opening notes and memory came flooding back, and then better yet, Hedges mentioned that he had composed this music for "a film called..." et voila, I had one piece of the puzzle. That's all it took, and a long search process to find the film soundtrack's name. Finally, here it is.

Can't believe it. Can't wait for it to arrive, in CD, no less. My cassette was lost in 1990.

Read about the the documentary made about "Uemura Naomi Monogatari", the great Japanese explorer and adventurer on wiki. He was finally lost in the snow and his body never recovered. Gorgeous music; has stayed with me all my life.

Windham Hill WD-1055
"Uemura Naomi Monogatari" also known as "Lost In The Wilderness" (U.S.)
AKA "The Shape of the Land" (which is how it is listed on Amazon)
Motion Picture Composer(s):
Will Ackerman (as William Ackerman)
Philip Aaberg
Kunihiko Murai
Michael Hedges

Released in:
1986
Country:
Japan