Blossoming of Ancient Beauty By The Bentley Project

 

Blossoming of Ancient Beauty

By

The Bentley Project

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

For those of you who had the good sense and discernment to purchase the last album from The Bentley Project called Kind As Shade, you will now be delighted to hear another release is on offer from the fantastic duo of calm and serenity.  The group consists of Theresa Bentley and Mark Bentley, and the contents are some of the most heavenly you could ever wish for, just what the word needs right now.

The album contains 9 lush tracks of new age instrumental music, its suitability for relaxation, reflection, and contemplative listening is at its very apex of musical brilliance and tonal core here. Tracks like the opening piece Realm of the Crystal Room, a composition so ethereal in structure and arrangement it is the perfect start to any album of this elk, and at times reminding me in context of the Uk’s new age band, Runestone from the 1990’s.

The delightful refrains on pieces like Breathe, literally allows the listener to soak in the music, whilst offerings like Labyrinth of Love add a further layer of a Celtic influence into the overall narrative of the composition, a veritable journey of music from ancient times can be found here.

Sun on My Face however is a guitar fans haven with a beautiful presentation from Dino Pacifici on this offering, in an almost Mark Knopfler style of performance, whilst the harmonic resonance of the following narrative entitled Blossoming from Ancient Beauty, is atmospheric and new age‑inspired music, blending ambient soundscapes with acoustic and modern textures, into an almost title track of an arrangement that is utterly beautiful.

The stringed element of the following piece End at the Beginning, manifests a tone of yesteryear, and glimmers of sun kissed reveries through the canopy of trees in an ancient woodland, in a Richie Blackmore styled performance, whilst offerings like Give Me Life have that empowering anthem styled motif, and a delightfully slow build to an inventive structure of crafted intelligence, the vocalisations here lifting the composition to new heights.

The penultimate offering has one of the most beautiful titles ever and called Lost in the Water Garden, there are several aspects to this slice of instrumental genius, its meditative qualities, its soothing narrative, and its restorative tonal delights, make this one for me, a go to track from the album.

We conclude this release with another wonderfully titled offering called Sanctuary of Dreams, when I first heard this I was taken back to the start of the century, 2005 to be exact and a release by the artist Llewellyn called Journey to Our Dreams, this is a pure harmonic conversion of transcendent beauty, experiencing dreams and journeys but being safe and secure in a sanctuary of sound whilst doing so, a genius move, and a composition of utter style to complete the album with.

Blossoming of Ancient Beauty by The Bentley Project is an album that I would personally recommend to all fans of ambient new age instrumental music, it’s up there as one of the best from any decade and Theresa Bentley and Mark Bentley should be applauded for bringing it to our ears, and to the world. Here is an album that is a rock bottom guaranteed hit, and I believe award worthy as well, and called Blossoming of Ancient Beauty by The Bentley Project.