Ambient music artist
Diane Arkenstone
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Diane Arkenstone
Music called to Diane Arkenstone from a young age. She bravely stepped forward to answer its call and has stayed with it throughout the journey of life ever since, no matter where the sounds have taken her. This journey has carried her through rock and roll, training as an opera singer, and to becoming established among ambient music artists…
Her work has become synonymous with her ethereal energy and the healing vibrations of calming music. A musical jane-of-all trades, she is an ambient music sensation with a diverse background that has led to a unique sound that is all her own.
A talented composer, varied musician, and the owner of a recording company, there isn’t much that Diane Arkenstone hasn’t explored in the music industry.
Biography:
Diane’s Relationship with Music…
Writing
Arkenstone heard the call of music from early in her childhood. She wrote her first song at the age of three, played piano at five, and played guitar at seven years old.
She listened to music nonstop, but it had no influence over what she wrote. Her songs have always been her autobiography. She carries within her an ethereal energy, and the music has been her way to release her emotions as she has moved through life.
Creating music has always been a part of who she is. She grew up dreaming of releasing music into the world.
Her childhood was full and busy. She was one of eight children. Though her mother was an opera singer, her parents didn’t want her to go into music as a career. As a child, she escaped into nature, where she composed and sang on horse back while exploring the ranch she called home.
She worked her way through college with three jobs. One of them was singing rock and roll, but she then discovered a softer side to her spirit. Training as an opera singer taught her to sing and protect her voice. This multi-genre background has stayed with her throughout her career as a musician.
Diane Arkenstone:
The healing music of a multi-genre musician.
Though her name has mostly been built as a prominent ambient music artist, Diane Arkenstone is a multi-genre musician. She has created transcendent ambient songs, as well as trance, world, ambient, Americana, Native American, and Celtic music.
Diane Arkenstone is a trained opera singer and has experimented with punk, heavy metal, and folk. She has never let the lines of genre stop her from exploring the depths of music and where it can take her.
Throughout all of this experimentation, she has carried one true common theme to all of her varied notes and nuance. The theme to her work has always been love. The loving energy she carries for the world flows through her spirit and into her songs. She loves moving between genres and has described it as evoking a sense of travel and exotic adventure in her spirit. The mixed palette keeps her passion and interest in music alive; it keeps her work exciting and fresh. In Native American and Celtic music, she has fallen in love with music that beautifully drones, and described it as hypnotic and having the power to get us out of our heads.
As she has made her name among the prominent ambient music artists, she has discovered a beauty to the emotional ambient songs she creates. She loves writing music that moves her to her soul, and has found a home within that space in many genres, including ambient. Some of the musicians that have been marked as influences for Arkenstone’s unique sound include Clannad, Enya, Darol Anger, Deuter, Steven Halpern, Gabrielle Roth and the Mirrors, and Kitaro.
She continues to create new albums…
Arkenstone is a musician involved in all stages of music creation. She is a composer, a musician of many instruments, and the founder of her own record company. She has had a varied and accomplished career so far, and she is nowhere near done yet. In her early years, she partnered with her dear friend Melanie to co-form Enaid & Einalem. Together they released several Celtic music albums in the mid-90s that has been described as calming music, peaceful, reflective, and ethereal.
In 2001, she created her own meditative music. At the same time, she was working on songs in the rock and Celtic music genres. In 2002, she became established among ambient music artists when her album Jewel in the Sun debuted at number 16 on Billboard’s Ambient charts. The album peaked at number 11.
Diane’s Best Of
In 2005, her album “The Best of Diane Arkenstone” ranked number one of 2,800 recordings on Zone Music Reporter’s Top 100 Airplay Chart. Over the course of her career, she has worked on over 45 albums. On them, she has played keyboard, wood flutes, dulcimer, synthesizers, percussion, and guitar.
She has taken this experience into her work creating her own record label, Neo Pacific Recordings. There, she has released her own music, and expanded her experience by working with talented musicians such as Earth Trybe, Enaid, and The Marquis Ensemble.
Neo Pacifica Recordings
With Neo Pacific Recordings, she has released albums such as Union Road (2013), Soul Nektar (2014), and Heart of the Vineyard (2018). Some of her most popular songs can be found on her album, “The Best of Diane Arkenstone”, including Voice of the Sea, The Secret Garden, and Rhythm of the Forest.
She has also released numerous holiday albums with Neo Pacific Recordings, including Christmas Healing, Vol. 1, Christmas Healing, Vol. 2, Christmas Healing, Vol. 3, and A Beautiful Christmas. Her music can often be heard on satellite radio, especially on ambient music channels.
The Calming Power of Music:
If there is a universal language, it is music. There is no need to translate. It’s a form of communication that creates a powerful bond between people everywhere; it provides a common ground where none may have existed before.
Arkenstone’s diverse and soulful work, united by the theme of love, works as an example of this transcendent power. Music is vibration. You can feel this as the chords are strummed on a guitar, or hear it in the beautiful droning essential to Native American and Celtic music. The notes have their own energy and cycles, and these energies put forth a healing energy. When your spirit needs to find a calm place to rest, you can depend on the power of relaxation music. The power of a song to transform our energy from a place of chaos to a calming center is one of the true magics of the world.
New Releases
Heart of the Vineyard
11 Songs, 52 Minutes
Music Brings Us Together:
The Collaborative Work of Her Career
Collaboration is an opportunity to grow as a musician. Arkenstone has collaborated with many musicians over the years. Early on, she created Enaid & Einalem with her friend Melanie. She worked with David Arkenstone on albums such as Music Inspired by Middle Earth and The Celtic Book of Days, and with Misha Segal and Peter Hume she worked to create the 3-CD album Christmas Healing.
She has been a part of many collaborations that have been produced through her recording company, Neo Pacifica Recordings. Some of these collaborations have included Adventure Cargo, Ah Nee Mah, Earth Trybe, and The Marquis Ensemble. As part of Ah Nee Mah, she worked on an impressive nine albums between 2000 and 2014. Adventure Cargo created an additional four albums. Through her collaborations, she has been prolific and developing her soulful style through various perspectives and themes.
How Diane Creates Beautiful Calming Music
Though music itself is a way for her to travel through the world, Arkenstone also enjoys exploring far away exotic places. She collects instruments and sounds throughout her experiences and comes home to explore what she can create with what she has found. Through these experiences, she has come to learn many instruments over the years. For composing, her guitars are still one of my favorite instruments. She keeps eight guitars at the ready, all tuned differently to create different sounds. The vibration of the wood against her body is vital and healing.
Diane wakes up with music playing in her head each day. She approaches the instruments and hears the sounds. The music is her navigator, and she is along for the journey.
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