Travel with GRAMMY® Winner and three-time GRAMMY® Nominee Darlene Koldenhoven and her musicians on the blissful highway with her New Age instrumental album, Traveling the Blissful Highway. There are twelve instrumental tracks including four with her angelic, harmonic vocalese, occasionally used as background instrumentation. All of her compositions and arrangements invite us to go out and see the world and have a good rest at the end of an exquisite day.
Darlene says, “After being cooped up so long in Los Angeles, I ventured to London, Las Vegas and Denver during the spring this year for some appearances and was so excited to travel again that when I came home, I started writing to process my emotions from it all and I just couldn’t stop! I hope the listener will enjoy the musical adventure and immerse in the sonic benefits from Traveling the Blissful Highway with me.”
There are 53:46 minutes of colorful timbres and some nature sounds to keep you balanced, focused, refreshed, and joyfully relaxed. Darlene performs on keyboard synths, creating a culture of calm: half the album has ethnic influences to gently keep you going on the road and half lets you exit to the rest areas. Even when real travel is not in the picture, pack these traveling soundscapes for your inner and outer journey. With this album, the only passport you’ll need for these destinations – peace, calm, happiness and bliss, is your own mindfulness to visit them and the album as your tour guide.
Darlene produced, composed, arranged, played keyboard synths, singing bowls, Native drum and shaker, rainstick, sang the vocalese, spoken word, and engineered the entire album. Joining her on this musical journey are 11 world-class musicians such as GRAMMY® Winner Charlie Bisharat – violin; GRAMMY® Winner M.B. Gordy – percussion; GRAMMY® Nominee Ron Korb – flute, shakuhachi, bansuri, Irish whistle, Gayle Levant – harp; Venugopala Raju – tablas and Indian percussion; Harry Kim – flugelhorn; Catherine Del Russo – oboe; Mike Miller – acoustic guitar & electric guitar; Joanne Lazzaro – Native American Indian styled flute; Courtney Jacob – flute; and Lyn Bertles – viola. On one track, “Jade Dreams,” Darlene is join by 5 additional vocalists: GRAMMY® Winner Alvin Chea, Todd Honeycutt, Aleta Braxton, Steve Lively, & Olivia Dessy.
The first single from the album (and first track), “Cheerful Mohana” dropped July 15, 2022. Since its release, “Cheerful Mohana” has recently been nominated for Best Ambient/New Age from the Hollywood Music in Media Awards and won Best World Music Recording from the Indie Music Channel. Mohana means morning raga (scale) in India and is known there to have the power to calm down anxiety and soothe the depressed state of mind. Venugopala Raju, whom Darlene worked with while performing in Bangalore, India a few years ago, plays tablas and an array of Indian percussion. Ron Korb from Toronto, Canada who plays flute and the Indian bansuri has also shared the stage with Darlene in Mumbai, India. Using delicate, multi-layered sounds, Darlene performs her composition and arrangements on keyboard synths, adding a touch of her syllabic singing as part of the ensemble, driving it to its cheerful finale.
For more on the album, visit DarleneKoldenhoven.com/ttbh.
Traveling the Blissful Highway is now playing on New Age Stars Radio!