"An Open Mind" by Louis Lamp:

Symptoms: tense and irritable. Diagnosis: too much stress. Treatment: listen to "An Open Mind" once daily. "Vibes? Yeah, vibes . . . and more. Very relaxing original music masterfully executed by Louis Lamp. 14 tracks of music more soothing than fine sipping whiskey, this album is guaranteed to relax those tense muscles and stimulate brain activity without nasty side-effects." - Jef Peace, PeaceWork Music Net. An Open Mind is destined to be an epic recording in the new age genre, possibly even being the album that redefines the genre for coming generations. Possessing both the soul of the warrior and the soul of the musician, Louis Lamp has breathed a fiery calm into these songs, almost in spite of himself. Anything but restrained, there is still an obvious cadence to the melodies that can be felt as well as heard, leaving the listener wanting more but not sure they could handle even a note beyond what they've already heard. This album both soothes and energizes the listener with a passion that has seldom been heard in any genre, let alone new age. It's in your hands now and now it's your turn to play a part in musical history by giving this album the attention it deserves, encouraging Louis Lamp to give more of his talent to the world in the form of more music, more albums.

The trait of this music that I enjoyed is that the music's rhythmic flow is tight. You won't find very many places (if any) that are out of sync. When I think of a New Age music "tight rhythms" is not the first thing that comes to mind but I was constantly made aware of his excellent awareness of rhythm on every track. Before you listen to Louis as with any performer that you have read a review on you base your listening time on what was said in that review, and if you think its worth giving that music your time. It's no different for me, I am given a short description of the music, which I base an assumption on that disc on what I have heard before. So why does this long exposition have anything to do with the music of Louis Lamp? My expectations were exceeded by this disc. Sure, after the first minute of the disc I could tell this guy had talent but the rest of the disc more than confirmed my original belief. I simply stopped what I was doing at my computer and sat back and started dreaming! Yes, dreaming. This disc was magical in its ability to make me just want to relax and take it easy (even though I had three deadlines to meet and a meeting to get ready for).. I thought about recording this CD to my reel to reel and playing it backwards and count how many times the word "relax" was used..Maybe next week I'll actually do this because something must have been added to this disc to make someone like me "relax". Though the style throughout this disc is nice the songs that are mainly composed of vibes became a bit repetitive. Those songs began to sound to much alike and I would have loved to hear a few variations, maybe even the addition of a few other instruments to break up that feeling of repetition. I noticed a picture of him playing a violin on his website and actually anticipated this additional instrument during my listening session. Maybe a future release will allow him to explore additional instruments. Having said that, this disc could easily be plugged in as a good movie sound track because the songs have a great visual presence, with a solid reoccurring theme (even if this theme reoccurred more then it should). As a stand alone collection of songs the CD begins to get a bit repetitive but it never got to the point of being an issue. To wrap this one up, its hard to beat Louis Lamp in his approach, its solid. "An Open Mind" relaxes, energizes, and entertains. So go open your Mind... Note: I was told that a copy of this CD was sent to the founder of EvO:R and his daughter became an instant fan. She took the CD to school (11th grader) and her friends where equally excited about the CD. So this CD reaches more then the fans of the relaxation genre..Carrera

A couple of weeks ago, if anyone had told me that I'd be enjoying yet another "Ambient" music CD, I would probably not have believed them. Well, here I am not only enjoying but raving about a new CD called "An Open Mind" from a new artist named Louis Lamp. Let me tell you, this is not "yet another" CD. Louis has composed, arranged and performed an album of material that is ambient overall but contains a range of moods and emotions. My favorites tracks are Emotional Collage which is dark, mysterious and joyful all at once; Reverie II which has almost a 70s funk feel to it and; Time Away (from Vibes) which brings to mind the keyboard work of Rick Wakemen. The sounds on this CD do not drone on and on in endless loops as do some other CDs in this genre. In fact, this is a CD of music. One could go as far as applying that old Romantic Era phrase "Song Without Words" to many of these compositions. Louis has created a CD that is refreshing and exciting. Put this CD in your player and enjoy an opening of your mind.

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