Martin, Deborah

Artist: Deborah Martin & Cheryl Gallagher
P: 2004
Tibet is a richly textured and highly emotive musical sojourn that takes the listener on a journey to the land above the clouds (as Tibet is known).
Perfect for meditation, contemplation, deep listening and spiritual thought and practice.
Deborah Martin and Cheryl Gallagher have composed a work of beauty and majesty mixing traditional tibetan percussion and taos drums, harps and electronics with samples of authentic tibetan prayers intoned by residents of this ruggedly awe inspiring country.
Martin - keyboards, samples, Tibetan bells, bowls, drums, assorted percussion and conch shell
Gallagher - Camac electric harp, electronics, samples, and percussion
Special guests:
Howard Givens, David Helpling, Mark Rownd and Mark Hunton

Artist: Deborah Martin + J. Arif Verner
P: 2007
Two artists known for their mastery of subtlety and the essence of understatement come together to create a haunting work that blurs the line lying somewhere between darkness and light; between apprehension and calm. Ambient textures of synth and guitar set the stage while occasionally haunting and beautiful Latin vocal phrases act as a beacon that guides the way through the dark and mysterious depths of the soul. Peaceful and yet powerful, Anno Domini lead us through doorways deep within ourselves that have long since been forgotten.

Artist: Deborah Martin & Jill Haley
P: 2023
Into The Quiet is the second collaboration between electronic ambient visionary Deborah Martin and renowned Oboist Jill Haley. Into The Quiet follows 2021’s The Silence Of Grace, which received numerous accolades—including making Zone Music Reporter’s Top 20 albums of the year. Once again, Martin and Haley blend electronic textures and classical instrumentation into works of rapturous calm. Whereas The Silence Of Grace was inspired by the beauty of the natural world, Into The Quiet draws from internal landscapes, inspired by the idea that one must go “into the quiet” to find what is hidden in themselves.
These eight compositions demonstrate the depth and intricacies that stillness can contain. Opener “Sleeping Giants” surges with choral warmth. On the title track, flute and horn wend around a warbling synth loop. “Hall of Whispers” is simultaneously melancholy and pastoral; harp and oboe play a shimmering duet while low textures ebb and flow around like wind whistling through ruins of ancient stone.
Into The Quiet reunites two masters of their craft and the result is spellbinding. These eight pieces show the serenity of space, allowing each note and melody to naturally unwind, and inviting the listener to do the same.

Artist: Deborah Martin
P: 1999
Deborah is joined once again by guest artist and friend, Tony Levin, and now Coyote Oldman in her latest musical vision, Deep Roots, Hidden Water. Whispery melodies are woven into lush, haunting chordal movements providing the canvas for dramatic coloration by bowed basses, textural guitars, Native American flutes and Taos drums. The effect is both simple and sublime, delicate and powerful. Deborah explains, "I wanted to continue exploring the paths of how we came to exist, to search deeper into the legacy of our past - the imprint of footsteps through time.
All music written and performed by Deborah Martin
The Strength Of Stones written by Deborah Martin and Tony Levin
Tony Levin - Bass, N.S. Electric Upright Bass.
Coyote Oldman - Cedar Flute, Medicine Whistle, Incan Pan Pipes.
Jon Jenkins - Loops.
Greg Klamt - Chinese Flute.
Howard Givens - Taos Drum, Effects, Bass,Ambient Guitar.
Mark Hunton - Native American Flute.
Matthew Stewart - Bass.
David Stile - Electric Guitar.
Philip Kolb - Voice.
John R. Larsen - Additional Keyboards.

Artist: Deborah Martin
P: 2015
"Eye Of The Wizard", marks the return of Deborah Martin after her longer silence on this Californian label. About 6 years have passed since Deborah's last Spotted Peccary release, a collaboration "Between Worlds" with Norwegian ambient guitar ace Erik Wøllo. Back to the newest recording, "Eye Of The Wizard" 4-panel eco wallet immediately strikes with gorgeously enigmatic cover images shaped by Spotted Peccary's visual master Daniel Pipitone. What a beauty!!!
"Dance Of The Faeries" unfolds this magical journey with pristinely balladic acoustic strings counterpointed with calmly ethereal washes and distantly meandering whistles. Soon vivacious hand percussions join the stage along with additional fanfares and clandestinely emerging mesmerizing shakers. A highly spirited blend of richly flavored acoustics and subtly glimpsed ambience. The next composition, "Watchers", reveals with another lyrical delight scrupulously amalgamating hypnotically pulsing subtleties, fascinatingly nuanced oracular blankets and persistently ear-tickling glimmers of dulcimer. Stringed poignancy announces "Lords Of The Vale", while ephemeral percussive echoes intermingle with empyreal choirs and orchestral patterns. Crystalline clinks inconspicuously sneak in as well and add another dimension to this textural delicacy. "Waiting" explores quietly mysterious horizons, where placidly, yet spellbindingly undulating and mind-bendingly helixing layers are permeated by warmly cinematic blankets and intricately coalesce with serenely arising bulky drone glimmers and organically swirling fragments. Intensely transporting soundscape!!! "Metamorphic", with 8-plus minutes the longest piece on the album, quickly returns into acoustic stringed terrains, poetically embracing, while guarded by distant waves of hummed winds. After about 2 and half minutes the track calmly transmutes into a sparklingly cadenced and abundantly fragranced texture, ingeniously wandering through variously crescendoing and diminuendoing passages, before closing the circle. "The Alchemist's Robe" is ignited by euphorically enrapturing dulcimer magic, meticulously backed by spaciously drifting enigmas and tinkling fragility. Then another stirringly chamaeleonic change resurges and shifts the composition into high-tech-infused laid-back scenario, exquisitely nuanced and leaded by synthetic downtempos, shaking hypnotics and dulcimer wizardry. Wow!!! This must be one of the most pinnacling moments on this magnificently rewarding odyssey, masterfully melting galvanizing electronic enhancements with brilliantly engrossing acoustic tapestries, more please!!! On the title track, "Eye Of The Wizard", Paul Frye on E-bow guitar joins Deborah Martin and Matthew Stewart, who accompanies the main protagonist throughout the album. Buzzing electric guitar dissonances keep on meandering and add a brand new feel to this expansive ballad, while acoustic strings, mesmeric pulses, gossamer percussions and sinuous oddities join this fascinating spectacle as well. Another tour de force of strikingly crafted hypnotic-charged ambient alchemy!!! Shorter "Into Mist" closes the album with heavenly-driven, orchestral-like washes reinforced by intangibly shimmering chimes, dreamy strings and transient opaqueness.

To make the credits complete, Jon Jenkins joins the team on the opening composition with his technical support and extra mixing, Chriss Lemmon (Deborah's husband) enriches the creative process with additional support, while Howard Givens controls the mastering duties. "Eye Of The Wizard" album, which clocks to nearly 43-minutes, is a truly fascinating potpourri of tricky melodies, mesmerizing beats and ambiguous soundscapes, exhibiting distinguishing artistry of Deborah Martin and her guests, and showcasing uncanny finesse in bringing acoustics and electronics into an intriguing equilibrium. Deborah Martin is incredibly passionate and experienced story teller and her craft on "Eye Of The Wizard" safely guides each listener through bewitching forest realms imbued by fabulously magical mysteries. A little gem of soundsculpting and musically superior listening experience.

Richard Gürtler (Nov 07, 2015, Bratislava, Slovakia)

Artist: Deborah Martin
P: 1995
Under the Moon is pure instrumental music with many elements from different styles,including classical music, electronic, ambient and so on. All selections have been composed and performed by Martin, although several other musicians (including Paul Lackey and Jon Jenkins) also appear. The music is innovative and uplifting. The author translates successfully her inspiration into electronic music, andwith it, the listener will be carried off on a relaxing journey.
Produced by Howard Givens and Deborah Martin.
All Selections composed and performed by Deborah Martin.
Quest artists:
Howard Givens - ambient guitar on "Twilight"
Tony Levin - bass on "Aurora" and "Rainbow Man"
Jeff Moore - ambient and acoustic guitar on "Aurora" and "Rainbow Man"
Paul Waroff - 12 string acoustic guitar on "Rainbow Man"
Bow Watts - electric guitar on "Rainbow Watts"
David Stile - electric guitar and classical guitar on "Night's Shadow" and "Before Dawn"
Edgar Perry - apache translation / spoken vocal on "Gray Sky"
Paul Lackey - additional keyboards and Native American flute on "Gray Sky" and "Maker Of Dreams"
Beverly Malone - apache translation on "Gray Sky"
Jon Jenkins - Native American drums on "Maker of Dreams"
Lyrics on "Gray Sky" by Deborah Martin.
Deborah Martin, in this highly acclaimed album, weaves enchanting melodies over delicate rhythmic movements of acoustic guitar and keyboards illuminating the realm between twilight and dawn. Ambient electric guitar and bass, orchestral textures, and Native American instruments are used to lend a profound subtlety to this warm and intimate release.
Used extensively on NBC's coverage of the 1996 Olympic Games.

Artist: Deborah Martin & Dean de Benedictis (Surface 10)
P: 2022
Inspired by the mysteries of the afterlife, Chaos in Premonition returns to the fantastical world Spotted Peccary artists Deborah Martin and Dean De Benedictis built in their first collaboration as Desensitized. Like their previous work Hemispherica Portalis, Martin and De Benedictis recorded their latest release live in the studio together, forming nine pieces from edited improvisations. Blending instrumentation such as clay ocarinas, flutes and Tibetan bowls with a variety of digital and analog synthesizers, Chaos in Premonition is an album that invites contradictions and makes peace with them, the only way to approach the question that inspired it: who are we and what made us?  The title track “Chaos in Premonition” begins in quiet vastness and rises to a bewildering crescendo, then fades to an ethereal chorus. Percussive chimes like raindrops in a cavern rise slowly from shadowy depths, evoking the cosmic. From there, the piece builds a sonic mosaic of skittering breakbeats, glitched fragments and glimmering arpeggiations: the birth of a world from quietude. On “Abundant Time” counter-rhythmic clock samples and heartbeats ebb and flow around sinuous drones and gently plucked strings. The two artists employ a rich amalgamation of acoustic and electronic elements throughout the work. With “Immortals and Their Graves,” De Benedictis’s Mayahachi flute moves from calm lulls to sweeping trills to rhythmic stutterings and back again, capturing in its amorphousness the peaks and valleys of a life. Even vocal elements appear in the finale “Sleep of Innocence” which finds Martin and De Benedictis humming in harmony over celestial chimes, an otherworldly lullaby. Just when one feeling takes hold, it darts away—unknowable, and yet a seamless compositional flow offers a well crafted consistency with every track. Martin describes the joy of collaboration as discovery; as each artist brings their own unique identity, how their compositional styles will blend is a mystery until uncovered. She continues: “That is what I find most exciting, the endless potential and possibility.” De Benedictis says “the essence and originality of Desensitized lies in how Deborah and I are so different.” From asynchronous perspectives comes sonic synchronicity. On Chaos in Premonition, this accomplished duo embrace their collaborative name Desensitized and weave the ancient and futuristic into an otherworldly tapestry all their own. 

Artist: Erik Wollo & Deborah Martin
P: 2009
American Indian inspired soundscapes taken to a deeper level.
Between Worlds is a dynamic and daring collaboration between widely respected ambient electronic recording artists Deborah Martin and Erik Wøllo. This album is a profound experience that delivers from the first track to the last, teleporting the listener to a place, or more succinctly, a ceremonial space; honoring and invoking the spirit of the American Indian.
Deborah shares some insight into the essence of the work, “The American Indian believes there are two worlds – the world of spirit and the world of form. Creating a bridge between the two worlds are ritual, healing and magic. The music process presented here was created to represent with sound this bridge between the worlds.” Erik adds, “It is important to hear the voices of the past and how they lived in tune with the rhythm and spirit of the earth. With Between Worlds, we delved deeply into the experience, capturing the feeling of this American Indian heritage with sounds and compositions.”
On site location recordings, authentic American Indian instruments, and sonic soundspaces by contributing artist Steve Roach, augment these beautifully composed vignettes, delicately and respectfully illuminating life, Between Worlds.

Artist: Steve Gordon & Deborah Martin
P: 1998
Undercurrents of thundering tribal drums and primal rhythms awaken the wisdom of the ancients while haunting Native flute and keyboard melodies conjure the elements of the Earth in this greatly anticipated collaboration between best-selling Sequoia Records artist Steve Gordon (Sacred Earth Drums) and acclaimed Spotted Peccary Music artist Deborah Martin (Under the Moon). Rattles and shakers, ocarinas, acoustic guitars, textural electric guitars, hand drums, and sculpted electronic soundspaces are all combined to transport the listener to a world of delicate beauty and raw power.

Artist: V/A
P: 2001
A collection of ambient and textural pieces from previous releases by David Helpling, Deborah Martin, Jon Jenkins, Mark Rownd, and J. Arif Verner.