Steven Halpern is best known as a solo keyboard artist, yet he has also produced major albums featuring an array of New Age and jazz all-stars. Released in 2024, Adagio For Strings And Soul (432Hz) is a collaboration between Halpern and the late cellist David Darling, who first rose to fame with the Paul Winter Consort.

Adagio For Strings And Soul (432Hz) serves as a testament to both Steven Halpern’s and David Darling’s iconic careers as pioneers of New Age and contemporary instrumental music.

The album features a more sophisticated sound design and production values, complete with lush, orchestral arrangements, giving the album a more intricate and multi-dimensional sound than many of Halpern’s solo or duet recordings.

A good example of Halpern’s “Earthy to Ethereal” approach to recording comes with track two, “Requiem For Lahaina”. The addition of Humpback Whale sounds gives the song significant depth. The fact that it's a requiem for the tragic fires on Maui in 2023 is made clear as David Darling’s mournful sounding cello soars over the Whale cries and Halpern’s ambient keyboard sounds.

With tongue in cheek, Halpern states “It was really hard to fit the whale into the recording studio in order to make David and the whale ‘sing’ to each other.”

Although the basic track was assembled right after the tragic Maui fires, Halpern notes that it took several months to fine tune the way the whale sounds led or responded to the cello’s phrases. Steven says he would receive guidance in dreams and meditation as to how to sequence their timeless conversation so that it would make most musical sense.

Another highlight on Adagio For Strings And Soul (432Hz), “Longing For Home” features Halpern’s gorgeous and flawless “w­aterfall of healing tones” played on his iconic Rhodes electric piano. No other artist sounds like Halpern. No other keyboard matches the sonic splendor and clarity of this instrument because it’s not a synthesizer. It’s essentially a series of tuning forks played by fingers on the keyboard.

In the CD liner notes, Halpern compares David Darling to classical cello masters such as Pablo Casals and Yo-Yo Ma. Every track takes the listener on a visionary journey, perfect for meditation or for simply chilling out. There are also several stunning videos on Youtube.com/StevenHalpernMusic.com