Stunningly beautiful flute… but spoiled by "new age" additions (synth & guitars)
Shakuhachi's compositions are beautiful, and his ZEN wisdom shines through, producing very soothing and relaxing effects on soul, body, and mind. The wood flutes and rain sounds have natural texture and bring us close to nature's rhythms, yet the extensive use of reverberation effects (to create the illusion of a large hall or cave) does not sound natural, and layered synthesizer sound effects on some songs sound very artificial and remind me of standard "new age" relaxation music. It is a pity that by trying to artificially improve what is already good, it has been spoiled, much like a good soup that has too much salt in it! Last but not least, for music lovers, the mp3 download has small file sizes (average 25MB) with above average sampling rates of 320 kbps and is thus inferior to the CD quality.