Spirit of the Andes is an easy listening instrumental album with its main instrument being the traditional South American pan pipe, which produces a haunting sound every so often heard on a commercial album released by one of the major specialist TV advertising record companies. These are usually by anonymous artists including
Free the Spirit and Inspirations, both with Top Ten albums in 1995. But the man most associated in the Western world with the sound of the pan pipes is Romanian national
Gheorghe Zamfir, mainly because of his work on the soundtracks to the films Picnic at Hanging Rock, Once Upon a Time in America, and The Karate Kid, in which the instrument was used extensively. He also became famous for his recording of the theme to the 1970s TV series The Light of Experience ("Doina de Jale"), which was a hit single in 1976. So although
Zamfir has never actually enjoyed a hit album of his own, despite releasing dozens of full-length works dedicated to the pan pipes, it was easy to advertise his 2008 album,
Spirit of the Andes, to a mainstream audience.
Spirit of the Andes is a bit of a mixed bag. It opens with a traditional South American folk song, "El Condor Pasa," and a fair share of classical-based songs can also be heard: Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro, Schubert's Ave Maria, and Bach's Suite No. 3. But this is no highbrow album, as it also features film themes to Limelight, Summer of '42, and out-and-out MOR pop songs "My Heart Will Go On," "Candle in the Wind," "Everything I Do," and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina." In fact, the album is intended as a populist introduction to the sound of the pan pipes, and is highlighted by the two final tracks, "When You Say Nothing at All" and "I Will Always Love You." A nice relaxing album, but one doubts that this is the sort of music one would hear high in the Andes. ~ Sharon Mawer