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Home   >   Projects   >   FLOW   >   Press Release

Track Listing:

1
Arrival
2
Whisper Me This
3
Flow
4
Free Ascent
5
Waiting For Sunshine
6
Waters Gather
7
And the Sky Was
8
A Night in Nocelle
9
Tenth Life
10
Rest Now My Friend

Will Ackerman,Fiona Joy,Lawrence Blatt,Jeff Oster :

FLOW

GRAMMY®-Winning Guitarist, Will Ackerman, Pianist, Fiona Joy, Guitarist, Lawrence & Blatt & , Trumpet and Flugelhorn player Jeff Oster, Release Debut Album:  FLOW

FLOW are Finalist for Two International Acoustic Music Awards Following Two Months at #1 on the ZMR Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart, Appeared on Nationally-syndicated PRI Radio Show Echoes, and Earned Multiple "Best of 2017" Honors.

Contemporary Instrumental music enters a dynamic new era with FLOW – a fresh ensemble comprised of four of the genre's most innovative, critically-acclaimed and awarded independent artists: Australian pianist Fiona Joy, acoustic guitarist Lawrence Blatt, trumpet and flugelhorn player Jeff Oster and legendary GRAMMY®-winning guitarist Will Ackerman. The group debuted live to a sold-out crowd at Carnegie's Weill Hall, and is slated to perform at the 14th Annual Zone Music Awards at Roussel Hall in New Orleans this May.  The International Acoustic Music Awards (IAMA) announced that FLOW are now finalists in two categories.

Recently released on Blatt's label LMB Music, it was Blatt's passion for jazz fusion that sparked the idea of an ensemble. "The inspiration comes from Chick Corea's classic '70s all-star band Return To Forever with Stanley Clarke and Al Di Meola, who joined forces, wrote music and produced a sound that was more powerful than any of their individual works," he says. "That was the idea, bringing great musicians together with this kind of concept," he adds. "When I started thinking about who it might be, my thoughts turned naturally to Jeff and Fiona. We knew pretty quickly that this was going to develop into something." 

FLOW's eponymous debut was recorded at Imaginary Road Studios in Southern Vermont, the longtime creative studio of Ackerman, founder of the legendary Windham Hill label. Windham Hill became a catalyst for a global musical phenomenon, driven by its bountiful legacy of best-selling instrumental solo works (George Winston, Liz Story, Alex DeGrassi, Michael Hedges) and Grammy-winning ensembles (Shadowfax). The artists concur they are pleased to continue that tradition in a modern way.

Michael Foster of Ambient Visions reviewed FLOW's debut performance writing, "Their relaxed nature onstage and the quality of the music they produced did not speak of artists being thrown together simply to create a ‘supergroup' but rather it showed individual artists who had gravitated towards one another and shared a unified vision of what they were coming together to accomplish with the music that was pouring out of each of them." Foster's full review can be accessed at http://ambientvisions.com/flowconcert.htm.

FLOW, the album, was an immediate success, spending two months at #1 on Zone Music Reporter' s Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart, and receiving a host of "Best of 2017" honors. They also performed live on Echoes (PRI), and have received positive press in Billboard, Acoustic Guitar, Keyboard Magazine, Huffington Post and more.

The all-star quartet is set to perform at the upcoming 14th Annual Zone Music Awards Show, at Loyola University's Roussel Hall in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Saturday, May 12; the album qualified in two key categories, Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.  The awards are presented by Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) is a New Orleans-based company that reports global music airplay and publishes monthly charts covering World, Ambient, Electronic, Acoustic, Piano, Chill/Relaxation, Neo-Classical, Vocals and related genres of music. The company's annual Zone Music Awards are blind-voted upon by programmers & DJs. The event attracts artists, fans, radio promoters, producers and industry executives from every continent to attend the weekend-long celebration. (More at http://www.zonemusicreporter.com/admin/Awards_welcome.asp)

As solo artists, Fiona, Blatt, Oster and Ackerman have all won or been nominated for ZMR Awards earlier in their careers. In addition to Ackerman's Grammy, they've also earned recognition at the IMAs, HMMAs, IAMAs, Arias, and a catalog full of #1 albums in the Contemporary Instrumental Music genre. FLOW plans to follow their ZMR Awards appearance with a tour in May, a new performance video, and a follow-up album.