Deuter Turns His Musical Spotlight On The Heart

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Deuter, one of the earliest creators of new age music with more than 60 albums released, now offers Illumination of the Heart, a masterful example of the best music made in this genre - transcendent, spiritual, transformative, serene, meditative, blissful and rejuvenating.

With this album on New Earth Records, Deuter finds illumination as both an inner, spiritual, personal journey as well as light from the cosmos. The tune titles reflect those feelings - "Moon and Earth, " "Coucher de Lune" (French for "Sunset Moon"), "Stern an Stern" (German for "Star to Star") and "Schein und Widerschein" (German for "Appearance and Reflection"). Deuter - who lives and works in the mountains just beyond the high desert of Santa Fe, New Mexico - also gets much inspiration from nature on our planet as shown by the composition "Desert Dream Green."

For Illumination of the Heart, Deuter plays a variety of instruments including the flute, keyboards, cello, piano and guitar. He also softly mixes in his own voice as an extra instrument to add humanness and touch the hearts of listeners.

"I think I have basically two elements in my music, " explains Deuter. "One is the constant dance on the edge of silence - moving into the silence and moving out of the silence. Now every tone and sound does that because every sound starts and ends, and there's always silence. When you hear the sound, especially the right sound, you experience for a moment the silence, which is always there inside us as well as outside, and which is the big nothing that everything comes out of. In music I love to create a path out of the silence, a path to express the joy of being alive, the gratefulness of being alive, and also a path that reverts back into the silence and the experience of the silence. The other element in my music comes from the fact that at the moment everything is going faster and faster in the world. I think it is really, really important that we create a balance to this. We need to find a way for every person, somewhere and somehow, to have the time to experience their inner selves, to be able to relax, to feel, to question what you are doing, and to feel grateful to be alive. I try to make music that helps bring the listener to that place."

Deuter is one of the founding fathers of new age music with his first album released in 1971. The majority of his works are intended to accompany various healing and spiritual practices such as yoga, Reiki, meditation, dreaming and massage. Through feeling, awareness and experience, as well as constant inspiration from the natural world around him, he creates music that transports the listener to a space of peacefulness and well-being.

Illumination of the Heart and many of his other albums can be found as CDs in music stores and new age lifestyle shops across the United States as well as online, while digital downloads of his music are available at all the major internet stores such as iTunes and Amazon. For more information about Deuter and his recordings, go to NewEarthRecords dot com or DeuterMusic dot com.

"How does this music happen? It basically has a lot to do with love, " Deuter says. "When somebody loves to do something, they try to do it as much as possible. For me it is making music. I created a working environment that feels perfect. I created my own studio. It is just an incredible, blissful experience to go in my studio, play around and start making sounds, noises, music, tones, then mix them together and see what comes out. So, any time I can spare, I love going into the studio. It doesn't feel like work at all. Of course it is connected with work and some of the stuff is tedious and must be done, but it is fundamentally an expression of joy and love."

Born in Falkenhagen, Germany, Deuter (pronounced doy-tur) remembers that "one of the nicer memories I have was the first time I heard someone play the flute. It was like a light coming from the heavens. For one of my birthdays I was given a flute and that was the beginning for me." He taught himself to play the flute, guitar, harmonica and "just about every instrument I could get my hands on." Deuter experimented early on with combining acoustic and electronic elements with ethnic instrumentation and nature sounds, such as whale and bird songs, ocean waves, wind in the trees, and more. "I was born in the countryside and my first memories are of nature, of sitting in the woods and enjoying being alive. I started to record the sounds of nature, then mix them together. The next logical step was to play an instrument on top of it. This was the type of music I wanted to hear - relaxing, soothing and harmonious - but I could not find it anywhere, so I started to make this style of music myself." His first album in 1971, titled D, helped define the emerging genre of music known as new age, and showed the beginning of Deuter's spiritual path.

During the 1970s and 1980s Deuter, after travelling extensively in Asia in search of spiritual and creative inspiration, settled for a long time in Pune, India, for spiritual study. While there he produced a series of music tapes to be used in "active meditations, " in which he merged Indian classical motifs, fiery drums, loops, synthesizers, bells and pastoral acoustic passages. In 1985 he relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he signed with New Earth Records and furthered his ascension into the top ranks of new age musicians worldwide.

Deuter's recordings are too many to list here, but include early classics such as Kundalini Meditation Music (1975), Tea from an Empty Cup (1975), Celebration (1976), Ecstasy (1978), Silence Is the Answer (1981), Cicada (1982) and Nirvana Road (1984) as well as more recent best-sellers including Inside Hypno Relaxation (1994), Terra Magica: Planet of Light (1994), Wind & Mountain (1995), Nada Himalaya Tibetan Bells (1997), Reiki Hands of Light (1998), Like the Wind in the Trees (2002), Koyasan: Reiki Sound Healing (2007),
Spiritual Healing (2008), Notes From a Planet (2009), Mystery of Light (2010), Flowers of Silence (2012), Dream Time (2013) and Reiki Hands of Love (2015).

Deuter creates his music in his home studio hidden deep in the New Mexico forest that he shares with birds, deer, bears, roadrunners, snakes and coyotes. The sound of wind chimes and bees fill the air because Deuter also is a beekeeper. Between studio sessions, he spends his time reshaping his pond or crafting zen-like furniture in his workshop. Deuter describes himself as a hermit/monk/wolf living in the wild and enjoying it, staying close to nature. He designed his house using the principles of Feng Shui. The studio, with its large windows and views of the forest, is both a sanctuary and a laboratory for music-making that includes instruments from all over the world. He continues to learn and master an ever-expanding array of instruments including piano, various keyboards and synthesizers, guitars, shakuhachi flute, cello, koto, sitar, tabla, Turkish sasz, Persian tar, santoor, bazuki, Tibetan singing bowls, chimes, drums, ethnic percussion and more. "For me all the instruments I'm using are basically like colors in a painting, " states Deuter. "I'm not focused on one instrument specifically. I use many sounds and instruments so that it is like painting with sound."

The music of Deuter might be powerfully energetic on one release, and then quiet and meditative on the next, but it always makes for a pleasure-filled experience while assisting the listener in other ways such as relaxation, healing, balancing, meditation, mental positiveness or life therapy.

“I traveled for years, ” remembers Deuter. “I went to Turkey and spent time with the Sufis there learning Sufi music. Then I traveled to Iran and Afghanistan and India and Bali. Wherever I went I made connections with musicians. I think all of those experiences have influenced my music although I cannot pinpoint what did what. It is the same way in which every day of our life, every experience, influences our behavior, our outlook on life and our artistic expression.”

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