PEACEFUL BEING by Richard Noll, 50 mins, 2017; CD $15/MP3 $10, RichardNoll.com.
Nature is the primary inspiration for Richard Noll’s music. His alto and tenor recorders amazingly evoke Native American flutes, his keyboards gently supporting the melodies. On Open Heart, he plays an electronic wind instrument that really sounds like a saxophone. His wife and co-producer, Shaina Noll, accompanies on several tracks with vocalizations, and Gwen Franz plays viola. This is simple, peaceful music that is relaxing as well as invigorating. “Most of my early music,” he shares, “came to me as I sat with my wooden recorder in the mountains or along the rivers and streams of Northern New Mexico…watching the clouds and the weather change, waiting for a sunrise or a sunset, listening to the birds… responding to the natural world around me, and I was communicating back, offering my flute song as a tribute or a prayer.” Magical.