Into The Quiet

Into The Quiet is the second collaboration between electronic ambient visionary Deborah
Martin and renowned Oboist Jill Haley. Into The Quiet follows 2021’s The Silence Of Grace,
which received numerous accolades—including making Zone Music Reporter’s Top 20 albums
of the year. Once again, Martin and Haley blend electronic textures and classical
instrumentation into works of rapturous calm. Whereas The Silence Of Grace was inspired by
the beauty of the natural world, Into The Quiet draws from internal landscapes, inspired by the
idea that one must go “into the quiet” to find what is hidden in themselves.

These eight compositions demonstrate the depth and intricacies that stillness can contain.
Opener “Sleeping Giants” surges with choral warmth. On the title track, flute and horn wend
around a warbling synth loop. “Hall of Whispers” is simultaneously melancholy and pastoral;
harp and oboe play a shimmering duet while low textures ebb and flow around like wind
whistling through ruins of ancient stone.

Into The Quiet reunites two masters of their craft and the result is spellbinding. These eight
pieces show the serenity of space, allowing each note and melody to naturally unwind, and
inviting the listener to do the same.

To sample tracks or purchase click here.

If you would like a signed copy by artist Deborah Martin you can order direct from her from the wizardscache.com site. Click the PayPal link on the right-side bar. The cost-plus shipping is $20 per CD and make sure to includes you name, CD choice and present mailing address at the PayPal sight.

Quotes

“There are those that come into our lives, crossing pathways until they tread softy into the quiet” reflects Deborah. “We live in a world of sound which over-saturated can affect thoughts and actions. When the noise is removed, one can hear in the silence.

What an artwork! Everything is well thought here with a music, a vibe that fits this sublime picture.

Into The Quiet delves deeply into the vastness of empty spaces filled with sounds of the adoration of the Earth, seeking an understanding of natural phenomena, and finding commonalities between all living things, things that are best appreciated as a whole.

“a magical soundworld of untold beauty”

Reviews

Written by Robin James, June 1st, 2023

The synergy and depth of the sounds and…

…the “stillness” in the layers that you can hear in this collaboration comes from the combination of the electronic music with woodwind instruments. There is something very magical about the serenity of nature, with the spirit of the wilderness. Listening to the delicate and focused musical moments, keeping to the direction of our dreams, and always remembering to cast our eyes upon the stars from time to time.

Jill Haley is an accomplished symphonic orchestra player, teacher, and church musician; she is an oboist, English horn player, pianist and composer who visits National Parks in the United States, often as an Artist-in-Residence, and composes music about the park while living there.

This album…

…Into The Quiet delves deeply into the vastness of empty spaces filled with sounds of the adoration of the Earth, seeking an understanding of natural phenomena, and finding commonalities between all living things, things that are best studied as a whole. Their impact on ambient, electronic, and acoustic music may not be recognized in our time, the music business being how it is, but it will surely be influential.

In reviewing their first album, The Silence of Grace, my thoughts were immediately guided into the wonderment of the wilderness. Being outdoors and connecting with Mother Nature is probably as close to heaven as you can possibly get on this Earth. What I hear is the sound of intuitive understanding, ability, awareness, expertise, grasp, familiarity, knowledge, understanding, experience, discipline, a certain mystical wisdom to the elusive existential question of our very existence.

We are somewhere below the surface looking up…

…into the sky, through a tear in the fabric of classicism. The opening track is “Sleeping Giants” (4:35). Tumult and chaos stop, and a reprieve is granted. Emerging from the caves down below, I hear the musical breathing of the gargantuan ones, and the voice of nature. Do I hear rustling water sounds, a distant windy beach? The feeling is sad and wonderful at the same time.

The resting giants moan softly but since they are so big for a moment the floor almost vibrates. Swirling, twirling, weightless, we recognize that it is fine to be powerless. With a clear sharp sustained ting, perhaps signaling the breaking dawn amongst the spheres, the next track title evokes in me the thought of a vertiginous ride. Instead find peace. Perhaps time is sustained, or suspended, or that time is open, think of flowing water, slow and calm, forming into columns and large shapes. “Falling Away From the Earth” (6:22), exiting the planetary orbit proves to be a smooth ride, the restful harmonious mood sustains and gently advances the peaceful and easy feeling, bringing deeper medieval colors and embellishments.

A perfect dawn soundtrack, warm pools in…

…the forest and the perfect spice of electronica, new machines throbbing and glowing nicely, flowing warmth expanding and breathing, runs and relays realization relaxation rolling on flows. “Into the Quiet” (8:32) Silence the daily noise to gain awareness of what exists in the quiet. Now we have arrived, ringing, and celebrating, joyful soaring and cello vibrations. “Reaching the Ambient” (4:23) feels like we are all opening into new worlds, flowing like water and shadows, always uplifting with a sense of support and security. The ambient can be a gentle place with healing powers.

Now perhaps we are in a forest or maybe a jungle. The next track suggests the concept of “Refuge” (5:08), perhaps in nature, portrayed by woodwinds and darkly sparkling synthesizers. Humans and nature have lived together for thousands and thousands of years. Each natural object was carefully placed as if Mother Nature had a specific outcome in mind. I hear adventure, slowly coiling songs establishing a foundation high in the mountains, an anthem of hope, “Elements” (4:11) What everything is made of. Imagination and will for making this life better in the future with layers of detailed hand percussion and harps and some rare ghostly choruses passing somewhere in the dark, here and back again for a moment, going to the moon to play music rather than mining or opening a station for visitors.

The track “Hall of Whispers” (5:36) is…

deliciously ominous and dark, calm, and interesting, sometimes ghostly. In my imagination, again and again the ghostly chorus passes by chanting. There is no dangerous tension, there is plenty of mystery, and always hints of a somber hidden chorus of giants, haunting voices with no words. Entering the realm of silence allows one to hear the echoes of whispers. I hear a cave, a sad story, somehow finding a way out. You know the cave is big, so big that there is no end ahead, so the darkness tells a story weaving deep hidden voices, swaying, and riding on the backs of large creatures in a caravan.

The beauty that surrounds the Earth is both grand and subtle, come to the edge and look outward, explore with your ears a different walking path today, seek out that rugged vista, the river and its tributaries, and the wind calling, feeling as if you have found the very edge of the world, embarking on adventures that no one has before.

Maybe because late spring makes it so easy to imagine abundant violets, rich dark thick night colors, calm, and abundant flowers, and I imagine moonlight on blooming royal calm purplish blue petals. What if we were deep underwater moving slowly amidst huge, submerged objects and beings, through wide open spaces going on forever? “Violet Night” (4:27) .

Epilogue

Imagine a mountain forest spa for your ears, calm and refreshing, always curious, carefully exploring the peaceful mint shadows, discovering expanding vistas and the sound of distant calling cranes and the hidden woodpeckers, with whirling circles and swirling flights, weaving waves and drones, gently remembering to slow down. Deborah Martin and Jill Haley are two multi-instrumentalists who are arriving at an immense new synergy, bounteous mystical wisdom, sharing their growth as artists while developing that musical connection and language. Sounds have color; calm, peace, stillness-these are violet. A feeling of calm emergence, chords and ringing metal opening into a rich palette of colors, cerulean calm, a spectral color constantly modulating blending slightly ghostly with a strengthening feeling, sparkling details, and lingering loveliness, extravagance, individualism, vanity, and ambiguity.

(Progressive New Age) Sylvain Lupari (July 13th, 2023)

What an artwork! Everything is well thought here with a music, a vibe that fits this sublime picture. If you enjoyed the main lines of The Silence of Grace, a critically acclaimed beautiful album that found its way into Zone Music Reporter’s Top 20 Albums of 2021, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t with Martin/Haley’s INTO THE QUIET. While the first album exploited themes representing the beauties of the universe, this second collaboration by Deborah Martin and Jill Haley is more focused on human experience. Of our inner spirit. In so doing, the 2 composers emphasize the notion that we must venture into the quiet to discover the hidden depths within ourselves. In so doing, the album exploits this duality to achieve this inner quest, as well as more melodic themes to sail the calm waters of a progressive New Age towards a slightly more accessible one. Especially in the second half of INTO THE QUIET, an album, like The Silence of Grace, produced by American label Spotted Peccary Music.

A slightly droning but rather solemn shadow rises from the introduction of Sleeping Giants. We float, equal to the sleep of sleeping giants, in a bucolic atmosphere that flirts with the limits of cinematic music. This impression is felt at several points on the album by the way. Immediately, we notice the delicate vision of sadness in the cries of Jill Haley’s oboe. A discreet voice layer and some melancholy violin blades inject a certain luminosity into the shadows of sadness that accompany this slow, very atmospheric-meditative, movement in a context where this fusion of weeping winds with a synth layer and its contours purr in symbiosis with the oboe’s moroseness. These melancholy scents and tenebrous hums occupy much of the ambience of the first half of INTO THE QUIET. A tinkle awakens our curiosity as Falling Away from the Earth develops. Its resonance and evanescent shimmer illuminate this floating web woven between the airs of a dreamy flute and a synth layer whose morphic side is nourished by somnolent drones. This union of acoustic and electronic ends up weaving an orchestral texture that is torn between nostalgia and the secret side of esotericism. The poignant harmonies of the flute and the silvery vibrations of the bells struggle with the dissimilarity of the dark irradiations of the synths, bringing more sonic arguments into this symphony of contrasts governing the territorial limits between hope and bitterness that is flowing at some points in this album.

The flute is more serene, a little less moving, in the title track. It mingles around the breaths of the English horn to float over the nasal and nostalgic timbre of a quiet, of a floating synth melody. The two musicians inject a little fantasy into their melodic textures. Here, as in many parts of INTO THE QUIET, Deborah Martin plays wonderfully between the music’s serene and murky aspects, fusing the buzzing shadows of her synths with the more elegiac textures of the wind instrument harmonies. A secret rhythm activates the ambiences of Reaching the Ambient. We hear it in a blend of string instruments, such as piano or harp, which structure an astral ascent under flute-like airs. The tone evolves both gravely and playfully in this acoustic/electronic vision, leading to a beautiful sampling of orchestrations after its second minute. At once celestial and mournful, Refuge brings us to this album’s more accessible New Age level with the quavering melodies of flute and oboe textures. The synth flows a peaceful stream of arpeggios as discreet as a shadow of night on this highly musical and poignant track from INTO THE QUIET. Hall of Whispers follows this tangent with hyper-emotional music guided by melody and the dreamy step of a harp. The arrangements weave an impressive dramatic canvas that is enhanced by the very moving dimensions of the flute and oboe tunes, but above all the orchestrations. Impossible not to love! I’d say the same for Elements and Violet Night, which exploit the same musical textures with different degrees of emotion in the moods and harmonies.

If we can’t reach that introspective quest, Deborah Martin and Jill Haley‘s INTO THE NIGHT remains a pleasant musical companion for reading and/or reaching for the long arms of Morpheus, depending on our nights. It’s a more musical album than the first, which can serve as a guide to tame us to its more difficult paths. Although the first half of INTO THE NIGHT is by no means a foregone conclusion! Available on CD digipack and as a 24-bit download from Spotted Peccary Music.

Peter Thelen, Exposé review

The distance between ambient electronics and orchestral woodwinds in terms of technology is far, but they can work together exceedingly well, as synthesist Deborah Martin and double-reed player Jill Haley have proven once before with their 2021 release The Silence of Grace. Martin and Haley have done I t again, although this time, with the eight tracks on Into the Quiet, the focus seems to be more gentle, emotional, and introspective. And did I say irresistable? Many layers of synths weave a beautiful tapestry that oboes, english horns, concert flutes, and occasional percussion can all blossom within, a constant eddy of melodic currents that are at once gorgeous, peaceful, and serene, defining the title in a magical soundworld of untold beauty. Since the mid-90s Martin has released over a dozen recordings, mostly on Spotted Peccary, some solo, like Deep Roots Hidden Water and Eye of the Wizard, and others in collaboration with other like-minded travelers like Cheryl Gallagher, Erik Wøllo, Greg Klamt, Mark Rownd, and others. She is also one half of the group Desensitized with Dean De Benedictis. Over the same period, Haley has taken a slightly different path with her solo work as well as with her group One Alternative, most recently a series of recordings she has created in residences at the various National Parks in the US, most recently The Forests and Shores of Acadia. The compositions on Into the Quiet are fully collaborative, although it’s Martin who is credited with the arrangements. At any moment listening to any of the eight pieces here, the listener may hear orchestral arrangements or electronics, but more likely the beautiful sound of both shimmering and flowing together effortlessly in contemplation.

Chuck van Zyl,STAR’S END – 22 June 2023

Leaving the confounding complexity of the world behind, Deborah Martin and Jill Haley head Into the Quiet (43:14). Their second collaboration of reeds, horns, woodwinds and sonic synth statements – where again exquisite moods seem to fix into physical locations – this release conveys further the beautiful power realized earlier on their The Silence Of Grace (2021). Declaring themselves across eight tracks this duo evokes a substantial set of pleasing pastel atmospheres and elegant ambient zones. As Martin’s sustaining layers of luxuriant synthesized sounds and lustrous mountainous chords enlarge our listening space, Haley’s Oboe and English Horn leads rise, focus and fall along a ribbon of key consonance. Each passing piece is another blessed encounter with something deeper, denser and wiser. From bright sonic sweeps and plush textures of bliss, to quiet twilight realms, Martin and Haley guide us gently through their vivid musical dreamland. Passing between the soft, the soothing and the sleeping Into the Quiet coaxes pages of engaging narrative from a vista of murmuring harmony and assenting tone – playing out as a thousand beautiful dreams sound softly within. In pursuing music’s secrets Martin and Haley strive for the gravity of insight – while we listeners, if only for the running time of this album, are offered a rare encounter with such unity and accord.

Review by James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Library Bookwatch: Midwest Book Review, The Library CD Shelf.

Into the Quiet by Deborah Martin and Jill Haley on Spotted Peccary Music. The second collaboration between electronic music artist Deborah Martin and established oboe player Jill Haley, Into the Quiet is an electronic ambient music album featuring masterful performances on the flute, horn, synth, harp, oboe, and more. All songs are original and instrumental. A captivating, deeply immersive listening experience, Into the Quiet is ideal for meditation, relaxation, or encouraging creativity, and is highly recommended especially for connoisseurs of the genre. The tracks are Sleeping Giants, Falling Away From the Earth, Into the Quiet, Reaching the Ambient, Refuge, Hall of Whispers, Elements, and Violet Night.

Posted by Robin James on 06/07/2023 at 7:00 am

An alpine forest spa for your ears

Oboe, English horn, concert flute, infused with Taos drums and various percussion, so smooth and delicate. I adore woodwind instrumental atmospherics, but the electronica (Yamaha Motif; Roland V-synth GT; Roland Integra; Spectrasonics Omnisphere) is what makes this loving expression complete. This is not Classical music, and this is not the sounds of nature itself. What I hear is a unique artistic interpretation of nature, fantastic instrumental Earth inspired themes, sustained intricate woodwinds with synthesizers beautifully expressed and calming to listen to. Sometimes I want to say that Into the Quiet sounds like an alpine forest spa for your ears, but that sounds hard to prove. Fine art goes with nature.

Hear the call, the voice opening the journey, haunting and comforting if that is possible. “Sleeping Giants” (4:35) is calming and a little bit spooky, wondering about those giants, and what if they awaken? No worries, this musical genre can provide a powerful soporific as well as an intricate instrumental reward, moments of extraordinary dialog and singular voices combining together, synthesizers breathing into some of the horn tones. Now imagine plunging away from the world, into unexpected freedom and the vast unknown. I see the title of the second track, “Falling Away From the Earth” (6:22) and I am thinking about falling. The actual sound is very gentle and embryonic, secure and comforting. How strange, now the Earth is falling away, or the reverse, and everything is serene. “Into the Quiet” (8:32) I hear landscapes that are soft, with pastel fields waving in the distance, and I think I feel the fingers of cool coming down my spine.

I love camping at night and finding so many more stars when I look up. Maybe bliss is real and must be practiced whenever possible. “Reaching the Ambient” (4:23) is a calm medicine that is not medicine, it is a comfortable place that you might seek when you want to hear something still and calm, or whatever might be found out there beyond still and calm. Finding “Refuge” (5:08), waking up in a calm but uncertain place, a strange place to explore. Some gentle complexities come into focus and then change, now the sunshine is gloriously pouring down into a place where light is rare. We are somewhere below the surface looking up into the sky through a tear in the fabric of classicism.

Gentle complexities come into focus and then change

The “Hall of Whispers” (5:36), this is where the ghosts are. Constantly extraordinary, I ponder medieval futurism, where I hear regal elements and processional journeys through forests and mountains with castles in the distance, weaving instrumental moments with electronic phantom choirs somewhere out there. Think floral articulation, with ghosts. It expands and continues, layers of sound changing into a more focused melodic theme persistently mixing bits making an interesting mosaic to puzzle imagine uncovering the tapestry; “Elements” (4:11), we are in a garden and the night is uncertain. Finally, “Violet Night” (4:27) suggests rich colors in the fading light, a song of memories and discovery where all is calm and restful. Perhaps an anthem to the theme of good healthy refreshing sleep.

Deborah Martin’s passion is to visualize and create music that takes each listener on a journey through time and space, exploring the depths of thematic composition through the process of creative layering of structured studio recorded compositions and live recordings of instruments, blending them into a world of ambient electronic expression. The synergy and depth of the sounds and the “stillness” in the layers that you can hear in her collaboration with Jill Haley combines the electronic music with oboe and English horn. There is something very magical about the serenity of nature, and Jill has connected her music with the spirit of the wilderness. “To hear the music that dwells in all of us, one must go into the quiet for the sound to emerge. Only when we have space and silence, can the music be heard.”

Jill Haley is an accomplished symphonic orchestra player, teacher, and church musician, an oboist, English horn player, pianist and composer who visits National Parks in the United States, often as an Artist-in-Residence, and composes music about the Park while living there. Some of the parks she has created music in and about include Montana’s Glacier National Park; Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado; Badlands National Park, South Dakota; Wrangell/St. Elias National Park, Alaska; Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico; and Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida.

Into the Quiet is the second album from Deborah Martin and Jill Haley; to me the sound builds upon and expands their natural combination of intricate, gentle and sweet listening soundcraft. For the first album, The Silence Of Grace, my thoughts were immediately guided into the wonderment of the wilderness. In places, it feels like visiting a different time, hence my earlier reference to medieval futurism. Into The Quiet delves deeply into the vastness of empty spaces filled with sounds of the adoration of the Earth, seeking an understanding of natural phenomena, and finding commonalities between all living things, things that are best appreciated as a whole.

Author: Robin James Editor of Cassette Mythos – electronic folk arts of the 1980s, a contributing editor of Electronic Cottage and a reviewer for BrainVoyager electronic music (and now Igloo). Interests include home town local history (Albion, Michigan) and pictures. Previously a librarian at the American Institute of Alternative Medicine in Columbus, Ohio and assistant reference librarian at the Pottsville Free Public Library in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

Deborah Martin