Search - Ancient Future :: Quiet Fire

Necessary for a desert island collection!

Stephen Swartz | Pennsylvania | 05/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"How can anyone not have this album in their collection? Quiet Fire is the quintessential worldfusion/new age/whatever album for each hour of the day. While I am not a fanatic about Ancient Future (this is the only album of theirs that I am so enthusiastically recommending), they got everything right on this early effort.
The title track alone is worth the price of admission, as the Indian instruments build slowly and passionately, if somewhat sentimentally, to absolute ecstacy in the climactic bars. Other tracks are free and easy, breezy, other stupid metaphors, but wonderfully refreshing and positive, uplifting. It's escape music that tears you from your reality and transports you to other worlds. The band utilizes the flutes and pipes, gentle percussion, and third-world strings in perfect balance to evoke several worlds that nevertheless don't stray too far from each other but far enough: they evoke a humid/tropical/pungent aural environment populated by myths and magic.
I was living in Hawaii when I came across this album and bought the cassette (in the days before CDs were common), listened to it to death and now have only my homemade cassette redub to listen to. Quiet Fire is one of my top 10 CDs for being lost at sea. Unfortunately, the CD passed under my watchful eye and now is "unavailable"...but it needs to be re-issued and distributed widely to a new generation!"

From Old Roots to New Forests

Marc Ruby? | Warren, MI USA | 02/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In a strange sense, Ancient Future created world fusion music. Not that it didn't exist before 1978 when the coined the term. But before then it lacked the identity and draw that this (then) new ensemble of musicians would create. Eclectic in their choise of instruments and ethnic styles they were adept at taking the old and creating something novel and compelling.Quiet Fire is a perfect example of what they can do. To the regular musicians (Matthew Montfort, Randy Mead, and Benjy Wertheimer) are added Darol Anger and Alex de Grassi. This stellar cast proceeds to play cello, flute, scalloped fretboard and classical guitars, esraj, tabla, charango, bansuri, and recorder creating music with infectious rhythms over which instrumental solos abound. Sometimes melody reigns supreme, and at other moments improvisation grabs center stage.Thus, the music is both delightful to listen to and full of the kind of depth that rewards concentration. Pieces range from the contemplative styling of Hillside View and Cascade to the danceable joyousness of Caged Lion Escapes. Quiet Fire. the title piece, started out on a Spanish note and then adapts a dreamy sing-song style that gradually evolves through Indian and African based turnings.There is something about this kind of work that is more than the sometimes derogatory label of 'New Age' implies. Since I am a fan of the genre, I always enjoy efforts that are more than 'easy listening' or 'smooth jazz.' Ancient Future's adventures in musical breadth reap considerable rewards for the listener."

My desert island needs this title, too.

Marc Ruby? | 05/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Read the desert island review, listened to the clips and was hooked. Entire album even better than the clips. Didn't like the clip of "Caged Lion Escapes" but the entire song is awesome. Cascade is a little repetative but "Mountain Song", Hillside View", and "Candlelight" are outstanding. A great listen."