Fields of Forel

Fields of Forel blends Enoesque ambient sounds with Windham Hill-style New Age, then throws in Folk, Gamelan and other World Music influences. The result is a CD full of music that provides a sensual background to every activities such as cooking, cleaning or or baiting hippopotamus traps. Unlike much of the music in it's genre, it also makes for a engaging listening experience as well. - Bob Cochran, WPMG Radio

Fields of Forel blends Enoesque ambient sounds with Windham Hill-style New Age, then throws in Folk, Gamelan and other World Music influences. The result is a CD full of music that provides a sensual background to every activities such as cooking, cleaning or or baiting hippopotamus traps. Unlike much of the music in it's genre, it also makes for a engaging listening experience as well. - Bob Cochran, WPMG Radio

This album took me by complete surprise. Normally I'm not into New Age-y instrumental stuff, but I really like Fields of Forel's self-titled release. Apparently, their name refers to a "receptive subconscious area of the brain," so maybe my appreciation for this album is the result of subliminal messaging. I did feel like I should be in the presence of my massage therapist at times; the incorporation of rain, birds, slow, repetitive guitar and some whooshing, spaceship-like sounds could have pushed Fields of Forel over the edge, from chill to cheesy - but some how Aurelio Laing III, Enrique Palacios and Nathan Slimane make it work. I'm not sure this is the kind of album that could quickly become a favourite, nor will it be something that anyone but alternative-healing practitioners will listen to religiously. I do think Forel's sound will fit perfectly with the right mood, though, or maybe help you settle into that mood; the verdict's still out as to whether we fit our music to ourselves, or vice versa. Usually these albums where one song drifts into another bother me; call me old-fashioned, but I like a song that's got a distinct start and finish. But as with the other things I usually dislike about this sort of album, Fields of Forel convinced me to look beyond the melting of one track into another. Instead, I'm left loving the intermingling of wind chimes, piano, and the sound of children playing. Their publicist calls them an Ambient/New Age indie band - I would have dismissed the indie bit until I heard a hint of Broken Social Scene in the sixth track. Give Fields of Forel a listen; you may never know it, but the subconscious areas of your brain will thank you.

4-Star Rating
www.lucidforge.com - Phillippa Scowcroft - Lucid Forge

This album took me by complete surprise. Normally I'm not into New Age-y instrumental stuff, but I really like Fields of Forel's self-titled release. Apparently, their name refers to a "receptive subconscious area of the brain," so maybe my appreciation for this album is the result of subliminal messaging. I did feel like I should be in the presence of my massage therapist at times; the incorporation of rain, birds, slow, repetitive guitar and some whooshing, spaceship-like sounds could have pushed Fields of Forel over the edge, from chill to cheesy - but some how Aurelio Laing III, Enrique Palacios and Nathan Slimane make it work. I'm not sure this is the kind of album that could quickly become a favourite, nor will it be something that anyone but alternative-healing practitioners will listen to religiously. I do think Forel's sound will fit perfectly with the right mood, though, or maybe help you settle into that mood; the verdict's still out as to whether we fit our music to ourselves, or vice versa. Usually these albums where one song drifts into another bother me; call me old-fashioned, but I like a song that's got a distinct start and finish. But as with the other things I usually dislike about this sort of album, Fields of Forel convinced me to look beyond the melting of one track into another. Instead, I'm left loving the intermingling of wind chimes, piano, and the sound of children playing. Their publicist calls them an Ambient/New Age indie band - I would have dismissed the indie bit until I heard a hint of Broken Social Scene in the sixth track. Give Fields of Forel a listen; you may never know it, but the subconscious areas of your brain will thank you.

4-Star Rating
www.lucidforge.com - Phillippa Scowcroft - Lucid Forge

Perhaps next to smell, sound can be the most intense of memory triggers. Not just hearing a pop song of your youth, but tones, or a wash of sonic clusters can remind of you of a specific incident, time or place. In the other half of my life, the half away from my radio work, I create soundtracks for the mind. I hear others who do the same thing. I can be transported almost instantly to a place or time by just hearing a well placed line of notes or rhythms. All of it somehow familiar. All of it somehow connected to my own life someway.

Fields of Forel is different. I seem to be living in a sound world I'm unfamiliar with. It's not an unpleasant place. Instead, it's a brave new world. It's born from a musical culture that is a true fusion. This instrumental CD is not a jaw-dropping clinic of jazz musicians playing impossibly intricate lines together at breakneck speed. What's happening here is new. It's about sound itself and how it can affect the soul and the intellect. And I suspect its creation was just as exacting and demanding as anything the jazz clinicians could hope to offer.

Fields of Forel might best be described as "Fields of For Tell" because Aurelio Laing III, Enrique Palacios, and Nathan Slimane sound like prophets to me. They're allowing us a brief glimpse into a new music that might be a soundtrack to a 21st or 22nd century life. Big. Small. Challenging. Bright. Dark. Real. And most definitely interesting. - Tom Alexander - Alexander Productions

Perhaps next to smell, sound can be the most intense of memory triggers. Not just hearing a pop song of your youth, but tones, or a wash of sonic clusters can remind of you of a specific incident, time or place. In the other half of my life, the half away from my radio work, I create soundtracks for the mind. I hear others who do the same thing. I can be transported almost instantly to a place or time by just hearing a well placed line of notes or rhythms. All of it somehow familiar. All of it somehow connected to my own life someway.

Fields of Forel is different. I seem to be living in a sound world I'm unfamiliar with. It's not an unpleasant place. Instead, it's a brave new world. It's born from a musical culture that is a true fusion. This instrumental CD is not a jaw-dropping clinic of jazz musicians playing impossibly intricate lines together at breakneck speed. What's happening here is new. It's about sound itself and how it can affect the soul and the intellect. And I suspect its creation was just as exacting and demanding as anything the jazz clinicians could hope to offer.

Fields of Forel might best be described as "Fields of For Tell" because Aurelio Laing III, Enrique Palacios, and Nathan Slimane sound like prophets to me. They're allowing us a brief glimpse into a new music that might be a soundtrack to a 21st or 22nd century life. Big. Small. Challenging. Bright. Dark. Real. And most definitely interesting. - Tom Alexander - Alexander Productions