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Imagine the most peaceful garden ever created... filled with lush plants, fragrant flowers, and quiet pools. Natural sounds and tranquil music drift by, putting your mind at peace and inspiring your soul. Following up their bestseller Garden of Serenity, David & Steve Gordon now take you deeper into this serene garden. Return once again behind secluded garden walls where blissful Shakuhauchi and Silver Flute melodies intertwine with gentle harp, koto, temple bells, piano, wind chimes, flowing mountain streams and exotic songbirds, creating a healing stress-free environment. This album is used extensively by healing arts professionals for their sessions with clients.
Release date: November 1, 1996
Published Reviews
New Age Retailer
Ahhh...Ten years after the release of their wildly popular Garden of Serenity, the Gordon's returned to this paradise and brought back stories of their journey, told with loving detail and exquisite beauty on Garden of Serenity II. The deeply peaceful sounds of flowing water and exotic songbirds graces this CD like beads of dew quivering and shimmering on a blade of grass as the dawn's sun shines gently down. Woven lusciously into the nature sounds are Shakuhauchi and silver flute melodies, temple bells, harp, Koto, piano and wind chimes, creating an earthy relaxing ambiance that is absolutely perfect for meditation, quiet contemplation, massage or as soothing background music while working or studying. Garden of Serenity II is divided into four parts, Zen Garden Parts I and II, and 'Monet's Garden Parts I and II'. Total time is nearly 70 minutes of music. Monet's Garden features several gorgeous variations on Debussy's Reverie, which will be instantly recognizable to many of you. I think I can safely say, without fear of contradiction, that Garden of Serenity II really ought not to be listened to while operating heavy machinery, it's that relaxing. The expertly and lovingly played instruments dance so precociously with the sounds of nature that it all seems to flow into one harmonious, healing whole, offering a welcome respite from the rigors of our days. No track stands out from the rest, they all work equally beautifully, offering another instant classic that is destined to do even better than Garden of Serenity.
— Steve Ryals
All Music Guide
Brothers David and Steve Gordon were pioneers in composing relaxing music set to nature sounds, and with Garden of Serenity II, they return to territory charted ten years earlier, music which mixes environmental recordings (their own) with silver flute, shakuhachi flute, harp, piano, temple bells, koto, and wind chimes. This recording alternates between two calming "Zen Garden" variations and a pair of romantic arrangements of Claude Debussy's "Reverie," inspired by paintings of Monet. The Zen series, with its shakuhachi flute and refreshing brook, inspires images of the solitude of a formal Japanese garden. The "Reverie" variations on piano are even more relaxing, like floating down a gentle stream overhung with trees of songbirds. Thirty-minute cuts are included for full relaxation benefit, while those on a time budget can sample the five-minute versions.
Innerchange
The peaceful balance that is so much a part of Zen Buddhist meditation is woven into the very fabric of Japanese identity. The daily world is approached through the quiet contemplation of the essence of an object or action. It is then reflected back out into the culture with such direct simplicity that everything, even backyard gardens with stones strategically placed in streams to create harmonics in the sounds of a waterfall, can help us remember the quiet stillness of the inner worlds. David and Steve Gordon bring this wisdom to their CD album Garden of Serenity II. This album's first arrangement "Zen Garden" is variations on "Reverie" by Claude Debussy. It is played out on piano, harp, and flute accompanied by singing birds and midway through, a gentle rain shower in the background. No matter what the weather outside is, note by soothing note, you will be led into your own private paradise and re-experience your own inner stillness every time you listen to Garden of Serenity II. This albums is unusual in that I presents the healing musical styles from the Orient and our own Western Traditions offering opportunities o appreciate both the differences and similarities.
— Lee Stone
The New Times
A temple bell signals the beginning of the reverie, then the listener is gently carried along on a tide of focus and healing-inducing adventures. The bird and brook sounds truly become one with the music, rather than the cloying distractions so often found in the recordings of lesser practitioners of this art. Here, it all fits. David and Steve Gordon have done it again.
— David A.Young
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