Album Notes Personnel includes: David Arkenstone (various instruments); Dan Chase (percussion).Compilation producers: Mike Bailey, Dan Harjung.Includes liner notes by Terry Wood.All tracks have been digitally remastered.Liner Note Authors: David Arkenstone; Terry Wood.David Arkenstone has parlayed his bold approach to sonic landscaping, his penchant for ambient, world, and pop music flavors, and his skill with both traditional instruments and computerized music-making into a long, impressive discography. BEST OF skims the cream from some of Arkenstone's strongest Narada releases, including QUEST OF THE DREAM WARRIOR and VALLEY OF THE CLOUDS. At only 10 songs, BEST OF doesn't indicate the breadth and scope of Arkenstone's achievements, but the well-selected track list does a fine job of introducing the mulit-instrumentalist/composer's grand vision.Arkenstone's mix of atmospheric synth textures, guitars, and global rhythms and melodies, can be heard to excellent effect via quiet and reflective pieces ("Another Star in the Sky"), pictures of exotic locations ("Under the Canopy"), Middle Eastern laments ("The Magic Forest"), and dark, ethereal grooves ("City in the Clouds"). Arkenstone's diverse directions are unified by lush production, cinematic atmospheres, and epic sweep. Listeners interested in a more comprehensive survey should pick up 2002's two-disc VISIONARY: THE ULTIMATE NARADA COLLECTION, but BEST OF is a great place to start looking into the music of this important New Age figure.

Keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist David Arkenstone cites Yes, Sibelius, and even author J.R.R. Tolkien as influences on his approach to composing, and evidence of their impact is apparent throughout this two-disc retrospective of Arkenstone's output from 1987 to 2000 for the Narada label. Using tracks selected from nine releases (plus a pair of label collections), this two-hour compilation showcases an imaginative artist who typically works the softer side of the progressive spectrum, at times leaning too heavily on dollops of sweetness or wispy ethnic flourishes when a harder edge would be more compelling. Even so, numerous tracks here reaffirm Arkenstone's ability to craft arresting, made-for-headphones soundscapes: the rhythmic, enveloping glow of "The Magic Forest"; the sonic aurora exuded by "Ancient Legend"; the violin-fueled Middle Eastern tempest of "Inshallah"; the uplifting insistence of "The Southern Cross." Kudos are also due Arkenstone's longtime drummer and brother Dan Chase for his inventive input on many tracks. --Terry Wood