After several years of media projects and producing for other artists, the long-awaited follow-up to William Hoshal's "A Rumor of the Sun" is released. Originally conceived as a small personal project, the full release of "The Language of Clouds" resulted from the overwhelming support and request for new music for Native American and Native American style flutes. Music that broke from the New Age path and looked to reach musical worlds into which few have ventured with these wonderfully expressive instruments, and done so with conscious awareness of the idiomatic nature of both the music and the instrument. What has come about is a collection of pieces bridging the worlds of jazz, ambient, world and traditional, wherein the flute is exquisitely part of the ensemble's whole, not just a guest star. Says William, "..Of course, I wanted to write music that I enjoy playing and that people enjoying listening to, and allowed the flutes to shine. But at the same time, I didn't want it to sound as if the flute had been shoe-horned into some odd place. It needed to sound as if it always belonged there...right beside a saxophone or trumpet..." Yet still, at the heart of it, "The Language of Clouds" remains a very personal project, with William playing all of the instruments, recording and producing every note you hear, and even creating the artwork and design for the package. "It was always something that I just wanted to do -- if it didn't work, or the result was something only I was digging, I didn't want anyone else to feel bad about being involved....For the longest time, I was apprehensive about anyone hearing it...I even decided to teach myself bass so that I didn't have to explain my wacky bass-lines to a real player. I wrestle with that fear all the time. Fortunately, my wife is usually there to kick me when I need it." THE LANGUAGE OF CLOUDS -- WILLIAM HOSHAL Performed, recorded and mixed by WIlliam Hoshal Produced by William Hoshal Executive Producer: Brent Haines with Very special thanks to Woodsounds Flutes Special thanks to Tim Blueflint and Shades of Rez Flutes INSTRUMENTATION: Native American and Native American style flutes, Chinese Xiao, Anasazi style rim flutes, Soprano saxophone, AKAI EWI, Piano, 5 string and 6 string electric bass, Acoustic guitar Drums, Percussion, Moyo Drum, Keyboards, Samplers Sample programming, Acoustic bass sampling, EWI and loop programming by William Hoshal; Additional EWI programming courtesy Patchman Music; Sampling software by Native Instruments; additional synth software by Spectrasonics REFLECTIONS ON THE MUSIC MOUNTAIN IN THE RAIN Key of G Blue Mahoe Flute by Brent Haines/Woodsounds Flutes --- "This is a piece I wrote some time ago, and even did a fledgling recording of it that was horribly busy and over-wrought. When I went back to the bare bones, essentially a quartet with percussion added, it fell nicely into place." THE LANGUAGE OF CLOUDS Key of G Mahogany Flute by Tim Blueflint/Shades of Rez Flutes --- "I toyed with trying to place this melody in a number of different settings -- even having it rejected from a video project on which I was working. The challenge here was matching acoustic guitar samples with my own rudimentary guitar playing. The little retro synthesizer line in the background is an EWI...but more on that later." ZUNI SUNRISE Key of E Contrabass Flute by Brent Haines/Woodsounds Flutes Key of E Maple Flute by Tim Blueflint/Shades of Rez Flutes --- "Among the many things of which I am thankful is my association with an enormous number of generous people throughout my career that took me under their wing and gently showed me how little I really knew. Navajo Elder Paul Thompson has forgotten more about this lovely melody than most will ever know. Thank you, Paul." VERDE VALLEY HIGHWAY Key of G Blue Mahoe Flute by Brent Haines/Woodsounds Flutes --- "For four years, good or bad - mostly very good -- I was afforded the privilege of driving every day through this area of Northern Arizona on the way to my studio in a 100 year old schoolhouse in Jerome, AZ. I would roll down the windows and breathe in the smell of rain on the high desert. In another example of musical kindness; one of the artists most influential on my career, though he doesn't know it, is the great Pat Metheny. So many words he spoke to me during a brief time spent in his presence have shaped my love, understanding, and devotion to music." DISTANT LIGHTS Key of A Redwood Anasazi Flute by Geoffrey Ellis --- "This began as a simple meditation on the Anasazi (style) flute, an instrument based on the artifacts discovered in 1931 by Earl Morris in Prayer Rock Valley, AZ. It sat, un-evolved over a time, until I was making a trip through Northern Arizona one day. Passing Echo Cliffs and out onto the flat plain before Lake Powell at dusk, I could see the lights of Page and Glen Canyon dam far off in the waning evening. The muted trumpet is a sampled and programmed sound I developed for an instrument known as the EWI - Electronic Wind Instrument - a wind synthesizer, created by Nyle Steiner and produced by AKAI. The song became a conversation between two instruments separated by close to a thousand years." PLEASE, STAND BY Key of G Double Flute in Buckeye Burl by Brent Haines/Woodsounds Flutes --- "Crossing genres is something I've done my entire life - sometimes with success; sometimes without. I'm intrigued by taking an instrument whose nature is quite basic and centered around a tradition of improvisation, and placing it in a setting of complex parameters but that also is firmly rooted in the spontaneous act of improvisation -- jazz. I also get a kick out of one indigenous instrument performing another entirely different indigenous art form. This tune was written during a very strange period for me. My career seemed to be on hold; I was contemplating a move into a completely different field; our lives had been uprooted by necessity...and at the risk of sounding melodramatic, I almost died - twice. Stand by, indeed..." THE ANTELOPE PLATEAU Key of E Cedar of Lebanon Flute by Brent Haines/Woodsounds --- "Driving across Northern Arizona is an awe-inspiring experience. Oak Creek Canyon, Painted Desert, the Grand Canyon, slot canyons, the list goes on and on. Out of Flagstaff and heading north, you emerge from behind the San Francisco (Kachina) Peaks onto a broad, flat high- desert plain that transports you from Pinon and Ponderosa forests, through a land of sage and cinder cones, to the foot of the Echo Cliffs and Marble Canyon. The road bounces, the wind whips, thunderheads chase you along, and the light spreads out in pale blues, grays, and purples, like a Maynard Dixon painting." RAINMAKER Imperial Myrtlewood Xiao Flute by Vance Pennington Redwood Dragon Xiao Flute by Geoffrey Ellis --- "Sometimes, after 20 years of 300+ days of sunshine a year, you look for any way to bring some rain....especially when you grow up in, as my friend Gary Stroutsos calls it - 'the land of moss and ferns' - the Pacific Northwest. Two Chinese ceremonial Xiao flutes, courtesy of two NW friends, take the spotlight here in a fervent wish for that cooling rain." FIVE CORNER DANCE Key of G Soprano Buckeye Burl Flute by Brent Haines/Woodsounds Flutes Key of E Maple Flute by Tim Blueflint/Shades of Rez Flutes --- "A subversive 5 over 4 marimba pattern along with mbira, dumbek, a propane tank, electric guitar, and EWI surround these two lovely flutes in barely controlled, but fun chaos..... Dance on..." WHITE SANDS Key of A Aspen Double Flute by Brent Haines/Woodsounds Flutes --- "My wife is an extremely talented and knowledgeable photographer, in love with nature, and whose instinctual understanding of abstraction simply blows us studious, bookish types plain out of the water. Her first trip to White Sands, NM was an astounding essay on how to comprehend that utterly alien landscape in its most basic components -- light and shape. What I saw in her work was an array of undulating lines that moved across the land with more energy than a thoroughbred race-horse, before diminishing against the distant horizon. She kills me...." All compositions copyright 2014 William Hoshal (ASCAP); except "Zuni Sunrise" All selections published 2014 Calling Rain Music; except "Zuni Sunrise," published public domain William would like to thank: Brent and Julia Haines for supporting the madness, Tim Blueflint for constant common sense, Geoffrey Ellis, Vance Pennington, Gary Stroutsos, Paul Thompson, Troy Perkins, Eddie Barratini, David Zabriskie, Alex Booth, James Tomlinson, Native Instruments, Spectrasonics.....and my Corgis of infinite patience, Lucas and Max. Thanks to all of the folks who wanted to hear more.... Most importantly, my beautiful wife...Kim, this is for you...