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Lucia Hwong — Goddess Vol.1: Awakening
(Goddess Music 1, 1999, CD)

Lucia Hwong — Goddess Vol.2: Celestial Realms
(Goddess Music 2, 1999, CD)

Lucia Hwong — Goddess Vol.3: Mystical Visions
(Goddess Music 3, 1999, CD)

by Mike Ezzo, Published 2000-05-01

Goddess Vol.1: Awakening Cover artGoddess Vol.2: Celestial Realms Cover artGoddess Vol.3: Mystical Visions Cover art

A trio of simultaneous releases from Lucia, someone we have heard nothing of since her two excellent Private Music recordings over ten years ago. Glad to see she is back! Now let me explain the situation with this release (notice I use the singular) — it can get confusing quite easily. What we basically have is one very long and complete work. This appears on the first volume, Awakening, containing about 11 tracks covering a vast perimeter. Though marred in a few places by a beat that (to me) seems unnecessary, this is the same quixotic mix of world music styles and beautiful atmospheres that Lucia gave us a decade ago. Acoustic and electronic instruments both appear, as before. There are also some wordless vocalizations that heighten even more the exotic blend. Very refined and classy. The main difference is that while in the past she pursued a predominately East Asian fantasy of sorts, now the arrangements are much more heterogeneous.

Volume 2 gives you approximately half of the same amount of music, but remixed without any beat or rhythmic element. In many ways this works its charms even better, the only minus being that the second half of the CD merely duplicates the same pieces. So you get about 30 minutes of excellent music, repeated once. What she has done with Volume 3 is to utilize various portions of the same material, broken into four separate movements, further remixed with narration added, as guided visualizations for meditation — a form of Reiki healing. The problem is I’ve been sufficiently “healed” already by the end of number 2! So in the end the CD is a sort of three-visions-of-the-same-project. One listener shouldn’t need all of them. I myself would take all of volume 2, and most of 1. Let’s hope it isn’t another 10 years until the next one (or three).

Filed under: New releases, Issue 19, 1999 releases

Related artist(s): Lucia Hwong

 

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