Hearing Visions is a deeply emotive and sonically transcendent journey crafted by Orchestra Indigo. Inspired by the artist’s mother, who experienced vivid aural hallucinations in the decade preceding her dementia diagnosis, this album explores the mysterious interplay between memory, imagination, and sound. Her “visions” of orchestras, Christmas carols, and fleeting melodies—sounds she often joyfully embraced—became a profound source of inspiration for this evocative release.
Blurring the lines between the real and the imagined, Hearing Visions invites listeners into a world where music acts as a bridge to the subconscious, a way to connect to beauty and solace even amidst life’s most challenging transitions. Lush orchestral layers, ethereal melodies, and an undercurrent of heartfelt nostalgia come together to create a soundscape that is as meditative as it is emotionally stirring.
Through its blend of serene harmonies and evocative instrumentation, Hearing Visions reflects not only the wonder of its inspiration but also celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the healing power of music. Orchestra Indigo has created a work that resonates deeply with anyone who has found solace in sound and seeks to honor the invisible threads that connect us through memory and love.
The fascinating story behind the emergence of new age artist Orchestra Indigo and its beautifully melodic and deeply inspiring debut album Farewell to Memories, has its roots in the lockdown early in the pandemic, when musicians around the world, with their regular gigs suddenly stripped away, were trying to figure out their next creative steps.
Having released his fifth blues rock oriented album Night Songs in February 2020, multi-talented singer/songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist Rick Randlett had every intention of hitting the road in support of the project. That had been his m.o. for years, playing up to 125 regional club and festival dates in and around his adopted home state of Florida for nearly a decade and a half after launching his solo career in 1999 with All Alone. Three of his releases reached the Top Ten on the Roots Music Report charts, and he collaborated on the album Hauntings with fellow blues singer Cassie Keenum in 2017.
Turning his anxiety over the sudden work stoppage into a fresh stream of creativity, he began exploring ambient, new age style compositions on a home studio setup that includes a Mac Book Pro, Studio One for DAW, Roland Juno synthesizer and a Modal Cobalt 8 synthesizer. His first idea was to create short instrumental pieces for music libraries, but besides learning about the fierce competition in that field, he realized there were too many restrictive rules. Rick embraced the freedom of composing longer pieces combining piano melodies with an array of dynamic colors he created using synthesized strings. Extensively researching the new age genre, he realized not only that these pieces he was composing were a perfect fit, but also that the audience for instrumental music was much more expansive than that in the blues world that was his home for so long. In creating his albums, he chose the artist branding name Orchestra Indigo because, after considering various word combinations, he thought it sounded unique and a little mysterious – and he didn’t want to confuse fans of his work in either genre by using his given name on the new age material.