Looking for something different? Try “The Spirit of Tao Te Ching”.

Richard Warner’s diverse musical influences makes each of the nine compositions on “The Spirit of Tao Te Ching” noticeably different from the others.

Some of the selections (“Thunder” and “Heaven”) reflect oriental musical styles, while one (“Earth”) is definitely colored by African traditions and others (“Sunrise”, Water”, “Mountains in the Mist” and “Wind”) sound more New Age-y (is this really a word?).

Warner combines acoustic winds, electronic keyboards, nature sounds and light percussion to evoke moods inspired by the eight trigrams of Taoist I-Ching symbolism: heaven, earth, fire, water, thunder, wind, lake, and mountain.

Less oriental-sounding than might be expected, this gentle combination of acoustic and electronic sounds in both traditional and modern musical styles took me a little while to get used to. Now I find it to be refreshing and delightful listening.

My favorite track is the last one, “Tao”, which showcases Warner’s meandering, hypnotic, wooden-flute improvisations with only chimes in the background.

You can get a copy of “The Spirit of Tao Te Ching” at Amazon by clicking on the link below.

If you do get one (or already have a copy), what do you think of it? Post your comments below, I would love to hear them.

What other music do you recommend?