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The Graham Album Review #2223

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Lunar Noon: A Circle's Round

(Independent Release, as broadcast on WVIA-FM 1/8/2025)

Music is such a flexible art-form, with hundreds of genres and sub-genres, made all the more diverse by the advent of technologies. While a lot of today’s pop music relies on technology to make the creation and production process easier, and open to those with less of a musical background, ultimately, it generally comes down to the artists making the music, and their sensibilities, personality and level of creativity. All too often it’s one group or artist trying to sound like someone else. On the other hand there are some iconoclasts who may be too far ahead of their time, or just don’t understand that different is not necessarily better all the time.

This week, we have a highly interesting album by essentially a one-person group who is both iconoclastic and quite appealing. The project is called Lunar Noon, and the new album bears the title A Circle’s Round.

Lunar Noon is the brainchild of San Francisco composer and multi-instrumentalist Michelle Zheng, and this is her second album as Lunar Noon. A native of Santa Cruz, California, Ms. Zheng says that she grew up with a decade of choral singing, studied classical piano, and looks to Bjork, Imogen Heap, Sigur Ros, Radiohead and Esperanza Spalding for inspiration, and also mentions film, anime and video game soundtracks, as well as the classical composer Debussey. One can hear some of that inspiration, though it’s not obvious, Ms. Zheng’s music is very much on her own plain, drawing on classical, jazz and art-rock influences, along with new age flavored ambiences, including sound of flowing water. On her website she writes that she was deeply influenced by the sights and sounds of the forest and ocean that surround her in Northern California.

On the album Ms. Zheng, who plays keyboards, is joined by a small core group with a jazz drummer, a violinst and a cellist. But thanks to the technology of file sharing, musicians around the world contributed parts from their home studios, including a Brazilian bassist and a Chinese player of the traditional guzheng string instrument. The music can be intimate, ethereal and then can reach strong orchestral-like crescendos. There is also a multiply overdubbed a cappella track. Ms. Zhen is a versatile vocalist with an impressive range, and yet significant portions of the album are instrumental. The 15-diverse tracks on the album clock in a generous 66 minutes. Some of the pieces segue into one another, and there are also some short interludes. So the album really does cover a wide range.

Opening is one of the more ambient-sounding pieces, With and Without. The Chinese guzheng appears with the string instruments. <<>> The piece builds to a more dramatic crescendo. <<>>

Ms. Zheng’s jazzy side comes out on the composition called When the Fruit, with the acoustic bass being prominent. <<>>

A considerable contrast comes on the track called Forgettable Consequence which builds to a large orchestral setting. <<>>

The title track, A Circle’s Round is a short electronic almost-dance oriented piece. <<>>

One of the most interesting tracks is called Peripheral, which was to be released as a single. The piece is almost theatrical with its large arrangement and Ms. Zheng’s strong vocal. <<>>

The album’s New Age influenced ambient side again comes out in another short piece called So the Deer. Though it’s subtle, the track stands for me as one its highlights. <<>>

There are two more lengthy pieces exceeding 8 minutes, which are sort of musical suites with orchestral-style arrangements. The track called Irises runs toward the classical in its instrumentation. <<>>

The following piece, Starry Night another of the lengthy ones is sort of like a progressive rock opus, with lots of interesting changes as the track evolves. <<>>

The album ends with perhaps its most striking piece, The Other Shore done in a choral a cappella setting, with the all voices presumably performed by Ms. Zheng. It’s a perfect way to conclude an all-around impressive album. <<>>

A Circle’s Round, the new second album by Lunar Noon, the musical project of Bay Area composer, keyboardist and vocalist extraordinaire Michelle Zheng and her friends, is a real gem, a bit of a masterpiece of eclecticism and musical acumen. On her website, Ms. Zheng describes the album as a two-and-a-half year labor of love, about the practice of mindfulness, and learning to find peace is the wake of pain. If you listen hard, you can hear some of her influences, such as the creative use of technology and vocal overdubbing of Imogen Heap, and the prominent acoustic bass style of of Esperanza Spalding. But this is album is the product of the musical imagination and creativity of Ms. Zheng, which she uses to the fullest with the wide-ranging arrangements.

Our grade for audio quality is about a B+. The sound is mostly clean, and the ambiences are nice, but like 99% of the albums on the scene these days, the dynamics of the performances are undermined by volume compression.

Lunar Noon’s A Circle’s Round is one of those records on which you’ll find something new on each time you listen. It’s a great example of musical imagination and the facility of technology coming together in the best way.


(c) Copyright 2025 George D. Graham. All rights reserved.
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<<>> indicates audio excerpt played in produced radio review

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