Michael DeMaria, Siyotanka

MICHAEL BRANT DEMARIA

SIYOTANKA (available at itunes.com, cdbaby.com or amazon.com)

Michael Brant DeMaria has played keyboards and drums all his life, but he became Dr. DeMaria with a PhD in psychology and music stayed a hobby for many years (although he has long incorporated music healing into his practice). His healing practices incorporate nature, creativity and spirituality particularly utilizing journaling, meditation and artistic expression, along with play therapy and music therapy. Fortunately a few years the doctor went on a Native American vision quest, was introduced to native flute playing and took up this new venture. A few years later he released his first album, The River. Now comes his second album, Siyotanka, based on an Indian legend telling the origin of the wood flute.

First, it is cool how DeMaria uses instrumental music to tell the story (the tribe, the boy on a quest, the elders, the animals of the forest who befriend and test the boy, etc.). It is reminiscent of classical music pieces like "Peter and the Wolf," "Rodeo" or "Faust." Second, DeMaria delves deeper, of course, because of his psychology background, and gives hints to the listener that this is an allegorical tale and a mythic, archetypal legend about bringing art to civilization and about all people needing to find their own personal "soul song" in life.

My favorite piece on the album is the eight-minute centerpiece, "The Dream," which starts with the sound of thunder, then flute-created bird sounds. Towards the end are pounding Indian drums, the tribe chanting and more rolling thunder and rain. The quick-paced "Beyond the Known" (with acoustic guitar) is also nice. In general, all of DeMaria's flute parts are very strong and appropriate to each piece.

From now on, if DeMaria doesn't have time for psychology clients, he might just have to hand them a copy of one of his albums and tell them to put on their headphones for an hour-long session.