Yanni - Reflections Of Passion (1990)

The album that launched a thousand wind machines, Reflections of Passion established Yanni as the face of contemporary instrumental music. While 15 of its songs were culled from earlier releases, it was nevertheless the pianist and composer's popular breakthrough. It propelled him onto the world stage -- literally, since he performed concerts in such locales as the Taj Mahal and China's Forbidden City. The exotic places fit Yanni's sweeping compositions, which incorporated crashing percussion and fleets of surging synthesizers to approximate what a wind storm would sound like if it was made of melody. "Nostalgia," "True Nature," and "Farewell" all worked on simplistic, yet extremely powerful piano lines that ebbed and flowed with new age grace. Sure, things could get a bit too soft-focus; tracks like "First Touch" were like delicate menageries teetering on a high shelf. But Yanni's command of straightforward structure and melody helped mainstream Reflections immensely.~Reflections of Passion Review by Johnny Loftus