David Darling: Cello Blue David Darling: Cello Blue (Hearts of Space - 2001) The luster which seems to emanate from a small, cello-heavy orchestral group, in fact all flows from one man; David Darling weaves his many strings into the tender arrangements of Cello Blue. New age symphonics of a most introspective nature. A morose beauty is set adrift on the rising/falling strings of Children; lovely, unless you tire of hearing slight variations of the same refrain throughout its almost 6-minute journey. Less-restrictive Prayer and Word swells and billows with shapelessly undulating stringsounds forming ambient moods from classical instrumentation. Twittering birds are heard above the muted plucks and thrums which arise from Thy Will "not mine" be done (8:11); a loose, going-for-baroque bit of tunefulness dappled with piano glints. Faint and sparse, ivories twinkle slowly upon the layered crests of Colorado Blue (3:05). The downwardly trickling notes of Morning meet warmer updrafts and more avian peepings. The eleventh piece, Prayer caps off the hour on a final flourish where melancholy and bliss merge into soaring strata. Of course, eloquent Cello Blue isn't all "otherwordly" like many of the recordings in these pages, but if you don't limit it (and yourself) by simply dismissing it as something you'd likely hear in a dentist's office, then you'll be more able to appreciate David Darling's gentle craftiness and evocative mood-creating abilities. An 8.3 instrumental enchanter from Hearts of Space. This review posted November 4, 2001 AmbiEntrance © 2001-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).