Tingstad & Rumbel, A Moment's Peace (Cheshire, 2005) This CD will certainly give you more than a moment's peace if you let it. The veteran duo of Eric Tingstad (fingerstyle acoustic guitar) and Nancy Rumbel (double ocarina, oboe and English horn) are leading proponents of intelligent relaxation music. By intelligent, I mean that they are never bland or particularly repetitive. All 10 tracks stay at the level of ultra-softness, using the formula of Rumbel's languid woodwind playing over Tingstad's picking. However, the duo keeps your interest with beautiful melodies. Tingstad does not use chords, but contributes to the melodic sound with his note picking. The tracks tend to sound alike, particularly since the duo does not use overdubbing or other musicians. The one exception is "Chaco," which has a Native American flavor at points when Rumbel plays the ocarina. However, the point of a T&R CD is to have all the songs gently flowing together. Mixed in with their own tunes are covers of "Over the Rainbow," "Crazy" and "What a Wonderful World." With 20 years and about 20 albums, Tingstad & Rumbel continue their pastoral music with this peaceful CD. [ visit the artist's website ] |
Rambles.NET review by Dave Howell 24 November 2007 |