$13.00 – $16.00
“New age pianist Ann Sweeten has turned out a spectacular list of quality recordings for the past 20 years. Few new agers even stick around 2 decades much less keep the level of quality that high. Her original compositions are always melodious and interesting and entertaining….an amazing artist who rightly resides at the pinnacle of both new age music but also modern piano performance. If you want the best, have a helping of this.”
Buzz Music
Tracks
1. A Light Rain
2. Dawn On Red Mountain
3. Veil Of Tears
4. Elysian Fields
5. Afterglow
6. Nikki’s Song
7. December Snow
8. Broken Wing At North Light
9. Eclipse
10. The Hourglass
11. Falling Leaves
12. On Wings Of Light
This album is a reflection on the work I have done at Imaginary Road Studios over the past decade and across 5 albums co-produced with Will Ackerman. I had wanted to put out an entirely solo album that takes a look back and Will offered to take a listen to that body of work over the last 10 years. Our goal was to create a playlist sequence from 55 compositions that would flow seamlessly from one to the other but yet stand apart to showcase the very wide diversity and breadth of my compositions and nuance of performance.
Will and I are both thrilled with the end result and send it out in the world for your listening pleasure. The album is approximately one hour and all compositions were re-mixed and re-mastered completely to create this new entity. So here’s quite literally to “Flying Solo”, as on the Concert Stage! Enjoy the Flight!
Credits
Composed and performed by Ann Sweeten on Steinway Grand Model B
All tracks co-produced by Ann Sweeten and Will Ackerman
All tracks recorded and engineered at Imaginary Road Studios, Windham County, VT
Engineered and mastered by Tom Eaton at Imaginary Road Studios
Visual Artistic Direction and Photography by Randy Yoder, RBY Photography, Salem, MA
Piano Technician: William Ballard
Reviews
SUPERB SOLO PIANO PERFORMANCES FROM LONGTIME CHAMPION ANN SWEETEN
New age pianist Ann Sweeten has turned out a spectacular list of quality recordings for the past 20 years. Few new agers even stick around 2 decades much less keep the level of quality that high. Her original compositions are always melodious and interesting and entertaining….an amazing artist who rightly resides at the pinnacle of both new age music but also modern piano performance. If you want the best, have a helping of this.”
MASTERFUL SOLO PIANO MUSIC
“Ann Sweeten is an excellent pianist as she has demonstrated time and again on album after album that have consistently risen to the upper echelons of the main new age airplay chart around the world. Now she returns with her first solo piano album of original compositions, Flying Solo Silhouette. This is as good as it gets in this genre. There have been a whole bunch of solo piano artists on the new age music scene over the past 20 years, but few approach the competency, talent, exquisite touch, melodic sensibilities and verve of Ann Sweeten.”
“Flying Solo Silhouette is Sweeten’s best work so far without doubt, this is an album that has everything the legions of solo piano fans will adore. She has manifested an album that has emotion, colour, movement, a softness of touch and intensity when needed. You will know I listen to many in this genre, but this has to rate as being one of the best I have heard for quite some time. I am sure that the radiant professionalism and outstanding skills shown within this album will also be acknowledged by those sensible enough to purchase it, this is pure class.”
“Ann Sweeten is one of the top Pianists to emerge in the past 20 years. In the past 20 years there have been many new age pianists who have burst forth and gone, but few have come along as talented as Ann Sweeten, who has continued to put out quality original piano material time and again, and those albums have consistently placed in the Top 5 on the International Zone Music Reporter Chart. If you buy lots of solo piano albums, after awhile you start to get highly selective because just how many solo piano albums does anyone need in their collection? But if I had to recommend one to add this year it would be this recording because Ann Sweeten is one of the best piano talents we have. She deserves to be listened to, and you certainly won’t regret it. Quality, like cream, rises to the top. Skim off some of this bliss.”
“Each of the pieces is reflective of the emotion so named in the title, which through the medium of her immense skill at the keyboard, are brought to life in an elegant and thoughtful manner. Sweeten has not been without her share of life changing challenges, surviving breast cancer twice and now battling Leukemia, which undoubtedly reflects in the tonal quality of the music. There is something additional that can only come of experience and survival, which in itself brings another dimension, a deeper understanding to living life to the full, which is reflected in the emotion of her music. Soothing and soft, the works simply keep on getting richer and better as she progresses through the beauty that can be found in the smallest of life aspects which are to be discovered in Dawn on Red Mountain, Veil of Tears, Afterglow andDecember Snow: each individual and yet related in an intangible moment in time. Her music is laced with hope, love and joy; it is exquisite and dainty. Created from what could almost be considered Divine Intervention, Flying Solo Silhouette is perfection. On Wings of Lightcompletes this delightful sequence of compositions which are to be, will be and should be, enjoyed time and time again. Perfection.”
“The tracks are like a string of cabochon jewels on a bracelet. The music is rich and fulfilling. Sweeten’s romantic sensibilities are expressed through refined melodic and harmonic content.”