AUDIO REVIEW: Suzanne Teng: Enchanted Wind

Autumn Light Productions AL199903
(suzanneteng.com)

The California-based New Age flutist, composer, and teacher Suzanne Teng studied music and healing at the UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology. On her inventive and groundbreaking Enchanted Wind: Flute Meditations for the Heart and Soul, she plays a variety of flutes, including the unusual contrabass flute. This instrument produces an extraordinarily soft, delicate sound with primal authenticity, although it is a huge, daunting piece of equipment, once memorably compared to "blowing through a sewer pipe while holding a telephone pole." Achieving magisterial serenity with this unwieldy flute, Teng is backed by a fervent ensemble of harp, dulcimer, harmonium, and zither. Small wonder, then, that she is in demand as a performer of enlightened flute meditations at worldwide events featuring the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh and Mata Amritanandamayi Devi ("Ammachi"), the Indian woman known as "the hugging saint." Teng's onstage collaborators have also included the mambo pioneer Tito Puente and singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins. Therapeutic regenerating comes naturally to Teng, who describes herself as "part of a movement towards creating music that is healing."