A beautiful and sublime release and sequel to the hit ‘Ascension’ which started Clifford’s career 25 years ago. The music has grace and is subtle and gentle – perfect for relaxation and healing. Superbly produced with shimmering sounds and themes that flow together effortlessly.
£9.99
Revealing itself like the dawning of a new day, The Power Within is an uplifting, proud and expansive piece of music orchestrated with rich strings, voices and harps, and carrying a bold melody that speaks of peace, love, joy and togetherness. This is followed by a gentle and sombre piece entitled The Calling, a sensitive and emotive ballad brimming with sentimental mood and sweet nostalgia. Balletic in it’s mood and style, lyrical in it’s theme and substance, Clifford’s music is both gentle and emotional, yet bittersweet and melancholy. Expertly mixed with the subtlest of skill, the effect is both timeless and ageless.
The reflective mood continues with A Blessing, which has an almost sacred, hymnal atmosphere, yet again demonstrating Clifford’s ability to weave melodies that are sweetly emotional and subtle. This is followed by the exquisite track Eternity, a truly beautiful suite of orchestral subtlety, with gentle horn melodies and piano overlaid on a bed of heartwarming strings, which grows in passion and intensity to it’s conclusion.
As if through a glass darkly, Luna has a mysterious intensity, secretive, alluring and enigmatic. Gentle electric piano motifs are accompanied by misty strings, pulsing bass and cascading piano, which blend effortlessly together to create an aura of dark mystery and magic. As if previously obscured by cloud, more rhythms appear as the track evolves, layered upon each other, until the piece resembles the ticking of some ethereal clock, eternally tracking the lunar cycles and the eternal revolutions of time.
The mystery continues in Sanctuary, a magical and atmospheric ballad of serene reflection and contemplation. A glassy melody seems to drip tears of sadness upon the landscape, and misty strings roll across the hills, calling out like distant voices in the haze. An overall effect of silent mystery suffuses this track, deeply contemplative and magical. Reawakening continues much in the same vein, with gentle piano arpeggios and horns that herald a plaintive and wistful melody, full of remembrance and retrospection.
The flotsam and jetsam of our memories are washed to shore in the beguiling and seductive tones of Divination. Serene swells and tender tides wash over us in this delicate and tranquil piece of music, which seems to shimmer and cycle like a submerged water-clock, counting time in years rather than in mere moments. Dreamy and charming, the track eventually blossoms into a romantic ballet of strings and voices, both amorous and poignant.
And finally perhaps all too soon, we arrive at the title track The Healing Touch, which beautifully summarises the emotional journey of the album. They say home is where the heart is, and this is truly music of the heart. The music sounds in many ways like the reflection of a life lived in peace and serenity, innocence and wonder, and the heartfelt and nostalgic emotions evident in Clifford’s original Ascension album are proudly revisited and re-experienced in this worthy sequel.
When I first heard that Clifford White was going to follow up his critically acclaimed 2009 album The Gods of Olympus with a sequel to his very first record Ascension (released by New World Music is 1985), I was both surprised and excited. Twenty-five years since the release of that classic work, the news that there […]
Some New Age music has the power to inspire us right from the moment it was first created, capturing your attention right from the beginning while also standing the test of time. Inspiring music reaching this level is powerful, imaginative, and well defined. Something I find just as inspiring are the true life biographies of […]
I’m always amazed when an artist totally changes style from one album to the next. Only a talented and versatile artist is able to express something entirely different from one release to the next. Clifford White two most recent albums are The Gods of Olympus (2009) which tells the story of the principal gods of […]
Clifford White is a new age musician based in the UK who has been creating great music for quite a number of years now and like a fine wine continues to improve with age. Clifford’s latest release is called Ascension II: The Healing Touch and is actually a sequel of sorts to an album he […]
Not long after CD Services first opened for business in the mid-late 80’s we produced our first Synth / New Age Catalogue, and this brought many new names to our world-wide Synth / Instrumental Music customer / fan-base. One of these new musicians was Clifford White, a UK based keyboardist with a strong fair for […]
25 years after producing the original Ascension, composer Clifford White returns and rises to new heights with Ascension II. Using gossamer, grace and passion, White’s new music is weightless and incredibly soothing. I have to admit that I wondered if Clifford could top his tremendous effort from his previous album Gods of Olympus and not […]
