Like Mark Biehl's Landscapes, this debut album by Nigel Holton is a journey of sorts across multiple ethnic landscapes. But Holton (the composer of dozens of TV and film scores) has much more in common musically with his Eversound colleague John Adorney. The eleven tracks on this 62-minute album are drenched in melodies and thick with emotion.

The result (usually) transcends easy listening. The way Holton (keyboards, synthesizers, samplers, percussion, vocals) and his ten distinguished collaborators on cello, Spanish guitar, tablas, Uilleann pipes, and more combine African chants (actually poems by Holton translated into an unidentified African tongue) and percussion, rumbling drones and didgeridoos, and the endless siren thread of a Celtic reel in "Waves of Time" is grippingly nostalgic in a manner that defies ethnic or geographic identification. The unexpected appearance of a lyrical cello in the Afro-Celtic "Field of Joy," followed by the counterpoint between a sad pennywhistle and Desire Adomou's gentle rap, and then finally the way Holton suddenly breaks open the sky with an exultant orchestral and choral finale are among the other inspired touches that elevate the British-born American composer above the clouds where most easy listening musicmeisters drift.

Listen for the spine-tingling Uilleann pipe solo in "The Stones of Callinish." Played by Eric Rigler (Braveheart, Titanic), it'll bring a tear to your Irish eyes.