While his ambient electronic approach to the trumpet and flügelhorn are perhaps not as commercial and in the pocket as 2000s hitmakers
Rick Braun and
Chris Botti, the Florida-bred
Jeff Oster -- years after abandoning his musical dreams in favor of success in the financial world -- scored impressive breakthrough success in the new age world with his 2005 debut
Released. He owes some of that success to the internet; getting 40,000 downloads on MP3.com attracted the attention of legendary guitarist (and Windham Hill Records founder)
Will Ackerman, who became an important collaborator.
Released, which
Oster described as "
Chet Baker meets
Dead Can Dance," won the 2005 Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album awards at the NAR (New Age Reporter) Lifestyle Music Awards. The
Oster/
Ackerman composition "At Last" also won the Best New Age Song award at the 2005 Independent Music Awards.
Ackerman takes
Oster to the next level as the producer of
True, an exciting yet relaxing, spiritually inspiring, musically challenging work that blends graceful melodies with edgy electronic new age, otherworldly soundscapes, and artful touches of exotica. On the opening track "Saturn Calling,"
Oster's dreamy flugelhorn melody sweeps over an extraterrestrial landscape that's all at once fluid, grooving, and tribally organic. The same vibe continues but in a slightly more low key mode on "This Place" and "Serengeti" before
Oster blends his best new age sensibilities (complete with
Patrick Gorman's sparse acoustic guitar) with a haunting classical/chamber music flavor on "Violet." He and
Ackerman vary the style from there, mixing spaciness and pop/soul with Tibetan throat chants on "Tibet," going film score orchestral on "Sounds Like Sunshine," and digging into a hip and soulful cool on "Once in a Blue Midnight." Perhaps the most conventionally beautiful new agey piece is the completely organic "On One Knee," a contemplative prayer-like song blending
Oster's horn,
Ackerman's trademark lonesome acoustic guitar, and
Philip Aaberg's lush piano harmonies. Overall,
Ackerman has the best description of the unique chapter
Oster adds to the new age realm: "the elements are familiar, but the synthesis is unique."