New age musician Cheryl B. Engelhardt has released a new album called The Passenger, featuring Grammy-winning musician Lili Haydn of Opium Moon, Dallas String Quartet, and more. Engelhardt, who studied orchestration at The Juilliard School, began her artistic career composing for film, theater, and choirs, before shifting her focus to her solo musical project. For her latest offering, she showcases her wide compositional range through expansive, uplifting soundscapes that draw influence from neoclassical and ambient.
The Lili Haydn-assisted “The Beautiful Bridge” begins the album with immersive synths and expansive strings that create a vast, freeing soundscape, making the listener feel an innate sense of peace. “The Light That’s Left” blends influences from new music and neoclassical with ambient stylings to create a peaceful mood, whereas tracks like “The Chariot” with Dallas String Quartet are more grandiose and orchestral, demonstrating her range as a composer. “The Two Feathers” with Sherry Finzer even brings in elements of jazz, with swelling, watery keys and elegant horns blending together smoothly. The only appearance of drums on the LP comes in on the electronic-tinged “The Zephyr Remembers” with Sangeeta Kaur. Featuring glowing synths and ethereal vocals that drift above the percussion, this cut is dream-like and meditative. Lastly, The Passenger closes out with the atmospheric “The Ambient Love”, which slows the pace down with spacey, shimmering synth pads and subtle, delicate keys that inspire a state of deep focus and relaxation.
The latest from new age artist Cheryl B. Engelhardt, The Passenger finds her demonstrating her compositional range across a set of 9 harmonious tracks that flirt with new music, neoclassical, ambient, and even jazz. Alongside an accomplished line-up of collaborators, she delivers heartwarming performances that lull the listener into a state of bliss.
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