It’s happened a few times previously and I pray it does again – a personal spiritual phenomenon I call “The Angel Effect,” where, almost as if by divine intervention, someone or something magical, transcendent and even potentially life changing enters my sphere at a point where such excitement, inspiration and encouragement feel essential and soul-nourishing.
Like a calming yet exhilarating burst of light shining down from heaven, this is emphatically what my senses experienced from the first dreamy harp strums, lush caressing ambience and gorgeous meditative, flute and vocal enhanced melody of “Golden Leaves of Fall,” the opening track to Peter Sterling’s soul stirring 17th album, the appropriately titled Heaven Sent.
I’ve been blessed to write about the highly acclaimed, much rewarded Sedona, AZ based harpist, composer and multi-instrumentalist several times before – most recently, Mystic Voyager, created as something of a musical adventure/autobiography. His compositions and performances have been consistent and nothing short of compelling and amazing since, upon first encountering the angelic realms, he developed his style without training and released his debut album Harp Magic exactly 30 years ago. But the story behind the inspiration of Heaven Sent – and mystical, contemplative, spirit-enveloping (and subtly romantic!) songs like “The River Runs Deep,” “Timeless Heart” “The Rain Will Fall” – make this 10-track collection feel more in sync than some of his other works to that mysterious and wondrously magical angel effect.
Heaven Sent, like many of Peter’s albums, is a stellar production featuring stellar guest performers on piano, keyboards, violin, viola, cello, Illium Pipes, Irish flute and pennywhistle, etc. These complement his own collection of sonically diverse instruments, including keyboards, Native flute, Tibetan bowls, Free Note chimes, percussion and vocals. Yet at its emotional core, the basic compositions arrived in a pure unfiltered manner directly, as he tells it and reflects in the album title, from heaven. “Heaven Sent came to me as a divine and sacred gift,” he says. “It was the day after Thanksgiving. The leaves in the trees were a golden color and the splintered light from the sun shining through in gold sparkly beams was beautiful to experience. I was in the depths of my heart and soul, receiving a message to just trust and allow things to unfold.
“I received an intuitive feeling that I should set up my microphones and my harp and just play from my heart and allow the music to express what I was feeling in the moment,” he adds. “I just let the music come through me and I endeavored to play from the deepest part of my soul. No gimmicks or tricks, just an honest expression of the depths of my feelings in this moment. This music came through me as I sat at the Harp for a little over an hour and channeled one Divine Melody after the other. Each song is like a pearl on a string – and I love how this record feels as though there’s a similarity with all the songs as they were birthed in the same moment.”
This surreal experience also inspired the fascinating cover artwork, as it felt as though the music was pouring forth from the Divine Mother, who Peter feels came to help him heal personal sorrow he was feeling in the moment. The image shows her above the clouds, flanked by white doves, with her hands outstretched, as if offering her healing, love and light to the artist and all who listen and are also in need of heart and soul healing.
Wherever listeners are in their lives, whether they’re hurting or a more joyful place, Heaven Sent offers a magnificently soothing antidote to a world which collectively always seems more chaotic all the time. Peter chooses his titles carefully, as if allowing the angels who surround him to guide our listening experience, from, say, the haunting fusion of synth ambience, flute and quickly plucked harp tones offering a “Silver Lining” to the hopeful fulfillment of a romantic relationship via the lyrical, classically-tinged “Forever My Love,” featuring a stunning solo by Nina Violin, and the tender, grace-centered “Together Forever.”
These last two expressions of hope are notable thematically because when Peter first felt the divine inspiration on Thanksgiving, he was still grieving the loss of a romantic relationship. After “Together Forever,” he shares the beauty of what remains even if things don’t work out via a softly reflective “After Glow” and dips into a bit of nostalgic sweetness on “Days of Old,” which features Leon Van E.’s wistful harmonica strains.
The harpist also artfully contrasts the dual nature of life being both joyful at times, full of sorrow at others, offering a hypnotically immersive, piano-laced reminder that “The Rain Will Fall” as surely as there are amazing moments where it feels like “The Sun Always Shines.” Putting this lovely exotic flute-harp duet at the end of the album is a way of Peter expressing God/Divine Mother’s message that while life has its hardships and heartbreaks, there’s always another chance for light and redemption with the break of each new day.