yanni

Listening to Yanni is like bathing in a mountain cascade, with cougars roaring from the hilltops around you, washing you in sound, under a solar eclipse. Yes, he's that epic; he's the Greek Phil Collins, how can he not be?

If there's still a market for atmospheric music, i.e. elevator Muzak, Barnes & Noble Muzak or back room of a strip club Muzak, then Yanni's new album, Yanni Voices, will dominate it. The man transcends culture and nationality to engage universal human desire.

Greek-born, Minnesota-educated and an Italian lyricist, his music sends waves of aural pleasure to bathe your auditory organs. I'm pretty sure that he's got degrees in anthropology and archeology given the wide range of musical traditions he draws from and the obscure instruments he uncovered for each track.

Yanni Voices has something for any mood: want to make sweet love to your significant other? Listen to "Kill Me With Your Love." Feel like having a rave in the desert with a tribal shaman? Then you should try "1001," a better version of Sting's "Desert Rose."

With heroic lines like, "Vieni con mi, vincereremmo," you never doubt that Yanni will take you on a wild ride and, if you're a woman, probably get you pregnant. If Barry White had been Greek, his name would have been Yanni.

He's got some bravado, as most of his songs are strictly instrumental or feature the vocals of other artists, but Yanni can do that; Yanni refers to himself in the third person, as in Yanni Voices.

If you want to broaden your horizons, go Yanni and you'll never go back.