Customer Reviews

Water Stories

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

 

 

First of all, many people will like this album better the second time they listen to it. Especially if your new to Cusco. Like every Cusco album this one has instrumentation and flavor unique to any other (Cusco, or not). Every song has it's own special quality, no same-as-that-last-song feel here. Many can change or enhance your mood.

Some picks: Sun of Jamaica, and Alcatraz, these songs are more universal then most on the CD. They are great for anything, driving, imagination, playing PC sims/games, dreaming of flight, anything. Java is much like this, but it seems to have more of a, well, ceremonial theme. Bur Said and Jebel at Tarik are even more ceremonial. Aurora is as beautiful as Mystic Islands' (another Cusco release) Lonely Rose, if you are in a soft or heart-broken mood it may make you cry. Let me stress one more time: most songs you will need to listen to more than once to get the full effect, this is especially true with the last track, Chorus.

This is a 10 star album, a timeless masterpiece (really!).

This 1990 CD, like Mystic Island released in 1989, is an excellent collection of songs from Cusco's earlier CDs that, at the time, had not been released in the States. Both were put together by Higher Octave after their successful first American release, Apurimac, to satisfy new-found fan demand for their earlier music. Water Stories was later released on the Prudence label in Germany, where it was considered a "best of" compilation. Early Cusco CDs are catchy, almost always fast-paced instrumentals that are on the edge of New Age. The group challenges the boundaries with pop, cosmopolitan rock, jazz and classical. Not as mature as some of their later albums, but make no mistake, this is outstanding New Age music. On Water Stories, their trademark panpipes and keyboards are used on selections related to the bodies of water that popped up on Desert Island, Cusco II, Cool Island, Virgin Island, and Ring der Delphine. The songs range from the upbeat "Waters of Cesme", to the beautiful "Lake Erie" (an interesting arrangement of the traditional Scarborough Fair), to the almost classical "Aurora" which uses the strings of the Munich Symphony Orchestra. The final cut, "Chorus", is from Musik Mantras 2, a haunting Johannes Walter production which includes some of Cusco's music. If you want a one-stop sample of some of the "pre-Apurimac" music that made Cusco one of Japan and Europe's (and now America's) favorite contemporary instrumental groups, Water Stories is a good choice.

The music on this CD will grab hold and take you places you *want* to be. Thrilling from beginning to end.

This CD is one of my favorites, and carried with me everywhere (listening to it now on my computer as I write this). The music is very upbeat and the song 'Lake Erie' should sound familliar to old Simon and Garfunkel fans. It's very easy to get carried away with the beat of 'Bur Said', or mellow out with 'Aurora'. This is the CD that gor me hooked on this group.

This album by Cusco definitely failed to grasp me. It tries to be epic at times, it tries to sound like Wollenweider other times, it wants to sound like the music from the Bolivian Andes and it misses the point most of the time. "Lake Erie," a song based on a Simon & Garfunkel theme, "Lake of the Ozarks" and "Aurora" were the only three songs that I really enjoyed. Sorry, Cusco fans, but to me this album was more like "pop" new age for the most part. For REAL new age, please go to Vangelis, Kitaro, Jean-Michel Jarre or some of Windham Hill's acts.