REVIEWS
"Chasm is an undeniable duo and also purveyors of sublime contemporary instrumental music." -One World Music Reviews (oneworldmusic.co.uk)
"This might not at first seem relevant, but if you've hiked through sunlit mountains, there's a good chance you'll recognize the sound, vision and (especially) the feel of Wood, Wind & Skin." -All About Jazz (allaboutjazz.com)
"The soaring guitar on Strange Currents will lift your spirits to the very edges of the galaxy… solid recording, well-paced percussion and delicate strings make this one of the best fusion pieces I’ve heard (yet) in 2020. I give Chasm a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating, with an “EQ” (energy quotient) score of 4.99/5 for this truly versatile and entertaining album." -Contemporary Fusion Reviews (contemporaryfusionreviews.com)
"Chasm - Mark Esakoff and Michael Whipple, certainly fits the bill, and for me in these troubled times, it is a real breath of fresh air that delivers something unique at our musical doors. Wood, Wind & Skin; one of the most enjoyable, varied and unique releases I must have listened to for ages, certainly this year." -One World Music Reviews (oneworldmusic.co.uk)
Click on image to hear audio review...
"Wood, Wind and Skin is a tasty treat for your ears. Chasm have assembled a wonderful collection of sounds into well-crafted pieces of music. World music fans will love it. If world music isn’t your regular jam, this is a great entry point. Enjoy!" -Pitch Perfect (pitchperfectsite.com)
"Wood, Wind & Skin is a real masterpiece of sonic delights." -Roots Music Report (rootsmusicreport.com)
"The team of Michael Whipple and Mark Esakoff is first-rate, and the performances by this duo are first-rate examples of contemporary jazz within a world music setting. Excellent." -Jazz Review (jazzreview.com)
"For lovers of cordially melodic music, these worthy musicians offer a sound of their own." -All About Jazz (allaboutjazz.com)
"Bamboo Blue is simply too much fun. If these cats didn’t have a blast recording this album, I’d be shocked... if you don’t have a good time listening to this CD, get a life, ya damn grouches!" -Zone Music Reporter (zonemusicreporter.com)
"Chasm has taken a very passionate approach to their songs. There is a natural purity of sound that has nothing to prove or an ego to boost up and defend. This is the pure joy of sharing your art so that others may take pleasure in it also. Check this one out." -Awareness Magazine (awarenessmag.com)
“Amiable, Good-Natured, Cheerful, Laid-Back, Mellow. AllMusic Rating: 4/5 Stars.” –AllMusic (allmusic.com)
"Sitting on Antonio Carlos Jobim's shoulders, Chasm plays with a distinct Latin jazz flavor. From the loungey backbeat of Monkey in the Middle to the easy float of The Smoothie, Mark Esakoff and Michael Whipple take the best advantage of their acoustic instruments and their many influences. So think Jobim, but not too much." -CNET Editor's Review (download.com)
"Even after you've listened to this CD (Panorhythmica) many times, its musical depth keeps it fresh and engaging, as new melodies and beats continue to emerge and amaze!" -Spa Magazine (writebyte.com)
"Bamboo Blue is definitely feel good music. You can dance to it and feel like you are at a party in a Peter Sellers movie. If you are looking for something a bit different, mellow, tropical in feel, not trippy or introspective, here you have Chasm’s own well-crafted sound." -Innerchange Magazine (innerchangmag.com)
"Loaded with hooks that grab your attention and keep it." -New Age Voice (NAV Review)
"Here is music by and for musicians with a purity of sound and talent that cannot help but delight both the masses and the most discriminating music lover." -Spirit of Change (spiritofchange.org)
"Bamboo Blue is definitely an intriguing album. World fusion vibes, along with slivers of 60’s and ‘70’s pop rock, mixed with smooth jazz riffs make the music on the album very entertaining." -BVS Reviews (bvsreviews.com)
“We were immediately drawn to the aura that surrounded their sound. This band represents the true definition of world music.” - St. Croix Music (stcroixmusic.com)
"This duo layers an impressive variety of instruments into a continuous, cohesive musical fabric, resulting in a very original piece." -Ourstage Magazine (ourstage.com)
"I give these folks a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... & an "EQ" (energy quotient) rating of 4.82/5." - Improvijazzation Nation (zzaj.freehostia.com)
"A southern, warm weather kind of jazz... good music for driving on a sunny day or chilling out on the patio. All the musicians do great work and the solos are not overlong or tedious." -Bullfrog Music Reviews (bullfrogmusic.com)
"Chasm is definitely entertaining. I immensely enjoyed their last effort, Bamboo Blue. But I’ve got to say that I might even enjoy The Lovejoy Sessions even better." -BVS Reviews (bvsreviews.com)
"The songs are filled with complex rhythms and catchy melodies that hide exotic little surprises throughout the album. You never know where this music is going to take you until you get there." -Innerchange Magazine (innerchangmag.com)
"When you feel like experiencing an exotic tropical vacation without leaving your living room, Panorhythmica can arrange the perfect audio getaway." -Music Web Express 3000 (mwe3.com)
"Flute and guitar, backed with drums, waste no time firing up the energy level in the room..." -New Age Voice (NAV Review)
"The Ventures meet Jethro Tull who meet Andre Segovia. I give Whipple and Esakoff a lot of credit for creatively connecting a hodge-podge of styles to form a recognizable, yet original, musical entity." -Awareness Magazine (awarenessmag.com)
"Congratulations Chasm... a unique and outstanding performance." -MUSICIAN Magazine (complete text)
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." -Elvis Costello
"Musicians don't dance." -Charlie Brown
"Without music life would be a mistake." -Friedrich Nietzsche
"Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereto." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There's not some trick to it. It's pure and it's real." -Tom Petty
"You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus." -Mark Twain
"You should never ever doubt what nobody's sure about." -Willy Wonka
"I'll play it first and tell you what it is later." -Miles Davis
"No one can walk backwards into the future." -Fortune Cookie
“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious." -Albert Einstein
"From there to here and here to there, funny things are everywhere." -Dr. Seuss
"The creative person shows himself naked, and the more vigorous his creative act the more naked he appears ~ sometimes totally vulnerable. Yet always invulnerable in the sense of his own integrity." -Harry Partch
”There is rarely a creative man who does not have to pay a high prize for the divine spark of his creative gifts...” -Carl Jung
"The heart has its reasons which reason does not understand." -Blaise Pascal
"Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable." -The Wizard of Oz
"The music is best when nobody's trying too hard." -Cal Tjader
"It is not our abilities that show us who we really are... it's our choices." -Albus Dumbledore
"We are the choices we make." -Jean Paul Sartre
"Families are the potting soil humans grow up in." -Steve Allen
"Eat your vegetables!" -Mom
"Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays." -Soren Kierkegaard
"I think, therefore I am." -Rene Descartes
"I am because you are." -Desmond Tutu
"I yam's what I yam's and that's all what I yam's." -Popeye
"The acorn of wisdom does not fall from the tree of knowledge." -Unknown
"Don't push it. Just let it fall." -Duke Ellington
"The complete satisfaction of all instinctual needs is not only not a basis for happiness, it does not even guarantee sanity." -Erich Fromm
"The unexamined life is not worth living." -Socrates
"Not everything that counts can be counted. And not everything that can be counted counts." -Albert Einstein
"What does a man profit if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" -Jesus (Mark 8:36)
"If you don't know, I can't tell you." -Louis Armstrong
"When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have peace." -Jimi Hendrix
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -Bertrand Russell
"And I slipped into a pseudo-dream, slowly drifting deep within myself. I kept going further and further inward until, unbeknownst to me, I had passed through my very core and found myself continuing right out my backside..." -Moon Dag Zephyr
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” -John Keats
"You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you odd" -Flannery O'Conner
“An un-believed truth can hurt a man much more than a lie.” -John Steinbeck
"I'm lying, but believe me it's true." -Charles Bukowski
"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." -Pablo Picasso
"We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth." -John F. Kennedy
"Art is more engaging than propaganda." -Larry Norman
Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best. -Frank Zappa
"We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns." -Tom Waits
"All that is gold does not glitter. All those who wander are not lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." -Carl Sagan
"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, going where I list, my own master total and absolute, listening to others, considering well what they say, pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me." -Walt Whitman
"When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will." -Abraham Lincoln
“It isn’t what you’re looking at, but what you see.” -Henry David Thoreau
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." -Carl Jung
"All you critics sit alone. You're no better than me for what you've shown." (from the song Ambulance Blues) -Neil Young
"Simplicity of character is the result of profound thought." -Fortune Cookie
" 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.' " -Lewis Carroll
"Words are very sharp objects." -Brian Eno
"I believe the printed word should be a given, doesn't matter what it said, the Wisdom Hotline from the dead back to the living, the key to the larder for your heart and your head." (from the song Books are Burning) -Andy Partridge
"And the Word became flesh and lived with us." -John 1:14
"Perhaps I’ll be back, one day, somewhere on the far side of whatever it is I’m about to start writing." - William Gibson
"I really didn't say what I said." -Yogi Berra
"You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it." -Duke Ellington
"Never miss a good chance to shut up." -Will Rogers
"Silence illuminates the soul." -Kahlil Gibran
"All final spiritual reference is to the silence beyond sound." -Joseph Champbell
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." -Aldous Huxley
"Why?... Why??... Why???................. Why not?" -Timothy Leary (dying words)