CD Review – Sounds from the Circle IV, by The New Age Music Circle

Produced by Suzanne Doucet (one of whose tunes is included) and The B Company’s Beth Hilton, this latest in a series of recording compilations features 40 individual tracks from members of The New Age Music Circle, an online community of New Age musicians from around the world, many of whom I have reviewed on this site.

This CD has a playing time of over three-and-a-half hours, which is possible because this is an mp3 collection, allowing for the expanded capacity. With the development of this technology, there is no more need for multi-CD box sets. Or multi-CD box sets can now have at least twice the amount of material.

The press release, as well as the album package, advises that the CD can only be played in mp3-compatible CD players and computer CD-ROM drives and won’t play in older, traditional CD players. I was able to play it in my 2010 Ford’s CD player with no problems.

The artists on this CD whom I have reviewed on this site include Hennie Bekker, Louis Collaiannia, AOMusic, Tron Syversen, Al Conti, Peter Jennison, 2002, Jose Luis Serrano Esteban, Bill Wren and Frank Ralls, Paradiso and Rasamayi, Michael de Salem, and Lia Scallon. You can look them up in the search engine above to see my reviews of their individual albums and get a sense of their sounds and styles.

The overall feel of the album is soothing and laid-back. This is the perfect soundtrack for a road trip, and you don’t have to change CDs for three-and-a-half hours.

--Raj Manoharan