Flow | |
|---|---|
 Lawrence Blatt, Jeff Oster, Fiona Joy, and William Ackerman | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | U.S. |
| Genres | New Age |
| Years active | 2017–present |
| Labels | LMB Music |
| Members |
|
| Website | flowthegroup |
Flow (stylised as FLOW) is an American New Age music group consisting of pianist/vocalist Fiona Joy from Australia, guitarist Lawrence Blatt, trumpeter and flugelhornist Jeff Oster, and guitarist Will Ackerman, all from the United States. The band's name is an anagram of the initials of their names. [1]
In 2015, Blatt invited Joy and Oster to record with him at Ackerman's Imaginary Road Studios to create an album emblematic of past iconic Windham Hill ensembles, with Ackerman and Tom Eaton serving as co-producers. Once the trio began recording, it became clear that Ackerman could be an essential part of this group as an artist as well as producer. The group was launched as a four-piece group when Ackerman agreed to take a more foundational role. [2]
The formation of Flow was cited by New Age music expert Stephen Hill as an example of renaissance in the genre: "in the last few years, the New Age genre has seen a critical reconsideration, with carefully curated compilations of historical material, while both veterans and descendants of the genre are creating new music that merits serious attention. A good example is the group FLOW, which includes none other than steel string guitarist Will Ackerman, in a kind of New Age 'supergroup.'" [3]
Flow released its debut album on October 6, 2017. Accompanying Blatt, Joy, Oster, and Ackerman on the album were Marc Shulman, Tony Levin, Jeff Haynes, Sam Bevan, Eugene Friesen, and Tom Eaton. The album has received critical acclaim by Zone Music Reporter, [4] Contemporary Fusion Reviews, [5] World Music Central, [6] All About Jazz, [7] and Ambient Visions. [8] Coincidental with the album's release, Flow debuted the album at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. Performing with Flow were Eugene Friesen (cellist), Vin Downes, guitarist, Jeff Haynes, percussion, and Eaton on bass and keyboards.
Flow's 2018 tour Arrival included performances at The New Orleans Jazz Museum, the 14th Annual ZMR Awards show, in Seattle, Oregon and Marin, California and concluded at Los Angeles' Grammy Museum. [9]
The album received New Age Album of the Year at the 16th annual Independent Music Awards show at Lincoln Center in New York City on April 3, 2018. [10]
The album held the No. 1 position on the ZoneMusicReporter's (ZMR) Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart for two months, [11] was nominated for and won two ZMR's awards, Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, at 14th Annual ZMR Awards show on May 12, 2018 at Loyola University's Roussel Hall in New Orleans. [12] [13]
In 2019, the group's song "Last Light" was nominated as the Best New Age Song by the Independent Music Awards. [14] It also released the album Promise. [15]
Johannes Linstead is a Canadian guitarist and instrumentalist who fuses virtuoso Spanish-style guitar with Afro-Cuban, Middle Eastern, and Latin American percussion and instrumentation. In 2017, Linstead was awarded the "Best World Album of the Year" in the T.I.M.A Awards. He has/had an influential artist endorsement deal with the Yamaha Corporation of America and an endorsee with D'Addario String Co.. Further accolades include being named "Guitarist of the Year" in the prestigious Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards (2007), two NAR Lifestyle Music Awards, a nomination for a Juno Award and others.
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William Ackerman is an American guitarist and record producer who founded Windham Hill Records.
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Fiona Joy Hawkins, is an Australian vocalist and pianist. Her collaborations have included five albums produced by Will Ackerman. Her influences include George Winston, Michael Nyman, Chopin, and Mendelssohn.
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Zone Music Reporter is a website tracking New Age, world, and instrumental music. The site features weekly playlist, monthly airplay charts, and album reviews. Premium services are also offered to artists and their management compiling custom airplay reports for that artist. Around 2023, the site began to experience technical problems, although its managers have vowed to reconstitute and perpetuate the database.
David Helpling is a California based guitarist and keyboardist, recording artist and film composer specializing in ambient music and electronic music. He started his solo career with Between Green and Blue and Sleeping On The Edge Of The World. After composing the soundtrack to the film Trade Offs in 2003 Helpling released four albums, collaborating with fellow ambient recording artist Jon Jenkins, before releasing several solo tracks and three new solo albums: A Sea Without Memory, Rune (2019), and IN (2022).
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Jeff Pearce is an Indiana-based ambient/new age musician. He has been called "one of the top two electronic guitarists of all time" by Allmusic, while reviewer John Diliberto wrote in Billboard magazine that Pearce is "one of the best" guitarists to follow the solo electric guitarist concept. Pearce started playing guitar at age 13 and discovered the music of Brian Eno and Harold Budd while in college.
Al Conti is a Grammy-nominated New Age composer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumentalist.
Corin Nelsen is a Grammy Award-winning recording engineer and music producer. He is best known for his work with William Ackerman, the Grammy award-winning founder of Windham Hill Records, and as chief engineer at Ackerman's Imaginary Road Studios in Vermont.
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Jeff Oster is a Grammy-nominated American musician who specializes in trumpet and flugelhorn in the New Age music genre. He is a member of the four-piece band Flow. Oster's style has been described as "Miles Davis meets Pink Floyd." He is three-time winner of the Independent Music Awards and ten-time winner of the Zone Music Reporter Awards. He was featured on the Laura Sullivan's Grammy-winning album Love's River. Flow's debut album reached number 4 on the Billboard New Age Albums Chart in 2017.
Tom Eaton is a Grammy-nominated American multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and mastering engineer. He is known as the composer of multiple albums, and as a producer and engineer who works with Grammy Award-winner William Ackerman.
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