It was one of those days when I wanted to listen to something nice and easy when in came 2 Cds from Roberto Luz, “Mambo Balam” and “Rivers to the Sea”. As I listened to them I tossed around the idea to review them separately but the more I listened they worked so well as one very long disc I decided to include both in this review.

Roberto Luz is a flute player. When listening to the discs for the first time I hadn't really realized it but the more I listened I noticed that I could hear breaths being taken during the flute parts. Its a digital world well in most parts of the world, Roberto lives in Guatemala, and the group of players he is associated with still does it the old fashion way. So the real textures of the music slightly caught me unprepared, but very happy knowing that I wasn’t just listening to electronic instruments.

The disc “Mambo Balam” is the more upbeat of the two discs. It also has vocals on a few of the songs where “Rivers to the Sea” is all instrumental. The vocals are in Spanish, if you are like myself and can only count to ten in Espanol, don’t worry, the vocals blend very well into the music and they can be enjoyed as just another instrument.

The music on both discs are well played by the musicians. It is hard to find anything to complain about unless your not a fan of light jazz, New Age, latin based music. It’s hard to put either disc in a category. One thing I was hoping for though I couldn't really find that one stand out song on the discs. All the songs were good, well thought out productions but I didn't hear “that Song” you always look for in a disc.

“Rivers to the Sea” is a soft earthy journey. The Sea or water theme is present throughout the disc. The sound of rain and water trickling is used to bind this group of songs together into a relaxing listen. As in “Mambo Balam” the disc moved well, the mixing sounded nice, even though the reverb on the flute could be toned down just a bit.

After listening to “Mambo Balam”, and “Rivers to the Sea” I would have to say that Roberto Luz and Friends puts out a nice product. With the well woven package I have only one small request. The music is in the mid to upper range. What might tighten up the whole thing would be the addition of a strong bass sound giving the natural sound a completeness.

Having said that, the thing I really enjoyed about both of these discs are the nice rhythms that lie under the melodie’s. These rhythms helps make “Mambo Balam” and “Rivers to the Sea” an interesting listen.

I enjoyed listening to both these discs and would recommend them if your looking for a, laid back earthy listen that won’t send you into boredom as some music of this type has the history of doing.