For Your Consideration:
"Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album"
The Album
"Two Shores" is the New Age music event of 2025. A intersection of great music and great performances.
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Two Shores (released August 15, 2025) is a luminous, ten-track journey spanning around 44 minutes, blending serene new-age calm with melodic sophistication. Crafted entirely by the duo—West on acoustic and electric guitars (plus bass) and Whalen on keyboards, synthesizers, percussion and more—this album showcases their deep musical synergy and hands‑on artistry. Two Shores is a stunning testament to both musical and sonic craftsmanship. This is two artists working at the height of their creative powers.
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Critics describe the album as “magical composition”, likening listening to standing at the edge of two distant shores—where emotional resonance, geographic metaphor, and musical tranquility unite in a seamless embrace.
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In short, Two Shores is much more than a collection of instrumental pieces—it is an emotionally rich, transporting experience, illuminating the beauty of where two worlds—and artistic souls—converge.
"Simply Fabulous"
Steve Sheppard
One World Music Radio
The Artists
Jim “Kimo” West & Michael Whalen
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Two acclaimed musicians from very different worlds—yet united by a shared devotion to artistry and craft.
Jim “Kimo” West is a Grammy Award–winning guitarist best known for his decades with “Weird Al” Yankovic and as one of the foremost practitioners of Hawaiian slack key guitar. His solo work blends deep tradition with modern storytelling, earning him both critical acclaim and a devoted international following.
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Michael Whalen is a two-time Emmy Award–winning composer, producer, and synthesist whose music has spanned film, television, commercials, and solo recordings. With dozens of albums and a reputation as a boundary-pushing sound designer, Whalen is known for bridging genres—new age, jazz, ambient, and beyond—with technical mastery and emotional depth.
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Together, West and Whalen bring a rare collaboration: the soul of slack key guitar meeting the expansive vision of a modern composer-producer. Their work resonates with fellow artists because it is entirely self-played, self-produced, and deeply personal—proof that virtuosity and vulnerability can live in the same breath...
