Touching Silk

Product Description As in Frank Steiner, Jr.'s enormously successful I Ching Symphony, Touching Silk is a lavish production. Balanced with dynamic rhythms and exquisitely poetic passages, this is music on a grand scale, filled with exotic sounds spanning the horizon from east to west. Touching Silk is a joyful cleanser, a break from our sometimes harsh world into one that is rich in fantasy and beauty. Amazon.com Frank Steiner, Jr. is a German composer, but he's shown a penchant for Asian tonalities in recent years. His I Ching Symphony was a surprisingly austere and affecting work, and he dips from that well once again with Touching Silk. Steiner is a gifted sound designer and player, who tends to drown his uncomplicated melodies and often striking instrumentation in honey-laden arrangements and Ray Conniff-esque voices. Playing most of the instruments himself, and most of them being keyboards or samples, Steiner mixes electronics, acoustic orchestral sounds, and traditional Chinese instruments. An electronic wind instrument effectively mimics a Chinese flute on "Indira Chant," and Chinese zithers ripple throughout his arrangements. But Steiner's simple pentatonic melodies have a trite, faux-ethnic ring. Touching Silk is an updating of Les Baxter-styled exoticism, but the results are less charming for their pretensions. --John Diliberto About the Artist Frank Steiner, Jr. was born in Freiburg, Germany in 1966. There he studied classical piano, trumpet and music theory. After experimenting on numerous musical projects and playing with a wide variety of groups, Steiner founded his own jazz-rock group. He now focuses primarily on composing. In 1990 Steiner met Ulrich Gitschier, a producer and studio owner in South Germany, with whom he became friend and collaborator. From Gitschier he learned the backgrounds of Far Eastern religions, cultural roots and music. Steiner was fascinated with his newfound knowledge, especially Indian and Chinese music, and began to compose works with these ethnic influences.
ASIN: B0002IQFWW
VSKU: DBV.B0002IQFWW.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Frank Steiner Jr.
Binding: Audio cd
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
Condition Notes: Individually inspected: Guaranteed to play perfectly or your money back. Case may show wear and may be in library packaging. Ships Fast!