This is an energetic and distinctive blend of virtuoso playing from multi-instrumentalist Kim Sanders, masterfully accompanied by Peter Kennard’s magic trunk of percussion… Trance’nDancin features several different fascinating musical styles – Sufi meditations, Turkish lullabies, trance music, folk tunes – as well as an enigmatic track, “Solitary Circumambulation”, which Sanders claims is the world’s first composition for gaida (Balkan bagpipes) and Hammond organ. Sanders is a relentless champion of world music and this CD celebrates the freshness and sheer excitement of the Balkan and Turkish traditions with added new twists and a funky rhythm section to create a joyful session of music for listening or dancing.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

– Jaslyn  Hall, ABC Limelight Magazine

Australian composer/arranger Kim Sanders has traversed the globe for over two decades, assembling a CV resembling a patchwork quilt (cane-cutter, “meatworks labourer”, documentary film researcher) in the process. He’s performed in some unusual global hot spots, including Senegal, the Balkans, China and Indonesia – basically every continent except Antarctica, and that might be next. Sanders’ instrumental abilities are broad: Macedonian, Turkish and Bulgarian gaidas (bagpipes), Bulgarian and Turkish kavals (wooden flutes), saluang (Sumatran flute), furulya Hungarian flute), ney (Turkish flute), tenor saxophone, tin whistle, drums, percussion and a host of other ethnic instruments. On his latest etherial romp, Trance’n’Dancin, Sanders features the ney, gaidas and…Hammond organ.  Pal Peter Kennard helps out on bendir (frame drum), darabukka and megabukka (Middle-Eastern drums), riq (Egyptian tambourine), surdo (Brazillian bass drum) zills (finger cymbals, wood-blocks, harmonium, keyboards, gong-on-a-mattress and…”dried budgies”. Trance’n’Dancin is primarily Turkish music, opening with a beloved makam (important note joining a tetra- and penta-chord). Other songs range from straight-up bop to Dervish trance tunes.  The album tries to inspire the titular actions in listeners, and succeeds.

- Stacy Meyn, Global Rhythm, (U.S.)Dec 06 (www.globalrhythm.net)

The album opens with Saba Taksim. The taksim being the opening section of a piece of music usually improvised, which introduces the mood of the piece and its tonality – in this case the scale or Makam is Saba, which Sanders describes as ’strange and beautiful’ – an apt description. It’s a sublime, haunting and spacious start to the album – transcendental. Sanders is playing ney (Turkish flute) with a simple drone, which also sounds like a ney loop. From here we move into the main body of the piece, the composition Saba Saz Semaisa also on ney, this is dervish music from Turkey by Celebi Murad, arranged by Sanders and Kennard. Kennard joins the frey,
perhaps on daf, the Sufi’s traditional frame drum of choice. Track 3 Kimizi Gul is a steady paced introduction to the more dancey numbers, a more sensual and earthy sound. Sanders is playing a reed instrument, perhaps
aardvark, a kind of bagpipes, or mey (double reed instrument). The track remains focused on its steady pace, with wandering traditional melody arranged by Sanders and Kennard. The pace picks up again with track 4 Tamzara. Kennard gives us a very funky rhythm supporting Sanders beautiful light and playful melody on flute, sitting on a harmonium drone. The cover notes don’t give away what instruments are featured in each track, but they do share the time signatures – this one is in 9/4.

Track 5 Solitary Circumambulation is the original composition for Hammond and Gaida – Bulgarian Bagpipe, with Kennard on surdo. The gaida holds the tune throughout, with some flute doubling. I would have liked to hear the Hammond break into a solo, from its bass/rhythm ostinato. We are treated to three more taksims on the album, the next track being Kaval Taksim then Beyati Taksim both on ney and then Soporific Taksim. They are all haunting and beautiful, particularly the last. The album is a beautifully shaped journey from the spacious taksims to fast and upbeat dance tunes, such as the Arabic Ah Ya Zane or Turkish Gidemem Siraza Ben steadier grooves like Yuksek, Yuksek Teperlere, and the occasional jazz influence underlying very traditional sounding melodies in tracks like Impossible Dreams of Sonia. Closing with a magical traditional Turkish lullaby Bebek.  Sanders has spent years studying the music of Turkey and the Balkans and his passion and skill for this music are clearly evident in this superb album. If you’re interested in the music of Eastern Europe or the Middle East, you should get this album.

-  Oonagh Sherrard, 2006,  for indie-cds.com website (www.indie-cds.com)

Given the jazz provenance of Kim Sanders, prior expectations that this is a jazz album may be justified. A few minutes listening to this CD however, will quickly put such suppositions to rest. From the very first track, the dominant flavour is clearly not just Middle Eastern but very particular strands within the complex heritage of Middle Eastern music and Balkan music.
A major part of this album is a modern interpretation of Traditional Mevlevi (Whirling Dervish) and Balkan dance music. Yet it loses none of the meditative and languid qualities of the original trance music, especially in the initial tracks, “Saba Saz Semaisi” and “Kimizi Gul”, but most apparent in Kim Sanders’ own composition “Saba Taksim”.
These pieces give way to the effervescence of “Solitary Circumambulation”, an acquired taste perhaps, being according to the liner notes, the world’s first composition for gaida, Hammond organ, and surdo, as well as the more buoyant “Kaval Taksim.” Yet, the real beauty of the album is the way that the bulk of the tracks achieve the near impossible feat of exuding a sound that is elegiac but at the same time spirited. The hauntingly beautiful “Gidemem Siraza ben” is almost heartrending in this technically masterful and emotionally uplifting intertwining of the plaintive with the exuberant. If there is a killer track in this album, this has to be it.
It is little wonder that the album announces itself as trance music-the listener is transported by this otherworldly music to a mysterious and rarefied atmosphere. Kim Sanders’ superb flute playing, with the Turkish ney and the Bulgarian wooden kaval goes a long way in creating the overarching mesmerising quality of this album.
Multi-instrumentalist Kim Sanders achieves total command over all his instruments and together with Peter Kennard has produced a masterful album which is an ideal vehicle for a breakthrough to a wider audience.

- Dush Perera, Jazz’n’Blues (Trance’n’Dancin was Jazz’n’BluesAlbum of the Month Jan 06)

Rating 4 stars (out of 5)

There is a profound dignity about the expression of sadness in Turkish Music.With neither histrionics nor sentimentality, the sadness is distilled into beauty.

Kim Sanders has immersed himself in this culture for years and achieves an extraordinary sound on ney (Dervish flute) for the rubato improvisations on this gloriuos album. He is accompanied by percussionist Peter Kennard, whose realisations of the slowest tempos in tricky time signatures is a marvel of meditative concentration and execution.

The carefully devised programming slowly transports the listener into a progressively denser sound world, beginning with solo ney, then ney and percussion, then the fatter sound of another Turkish wind instrument, the double-reed mey, with hand-drums and bells.  By the tme they release the mounting tension with a 9/4 dance called Tamzara, you are ready to rise and join the party. A particular joy is the soulful Solitary Circumambulation for the unlikely combination of gaida (bagpipes) organ and percussion.

- John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald,Dec 5, 2005

Kim’s first album ‘You Cant Get There From Here’ was nominated for an ARIA in 2002 for Best World Music CD. Kim’s second album offers as much as the first with a nuance that is both soothing and sensual. The album features the sounds of the ney (Turkish flute), kaval, Bulgarian and Turkish gaidas (bagpipes) and his own inovation, the Aardvark.
Kim takes you on a journey. The Traditional sounds of the Sufi flute will touch the deeper moods of the soul.Don’t be afraid to engage with the rhythms and let down your defences so it can penetrate you deeper and lead you to new discoveries and travels.
Track 3 is my favourite, ‘Kirmizi Gul’. It is sorrowful yet uplifting and sets a mood of optimism.  It is a good track to write to or when the kids have gone out for the afternoon with dad and you’ve got some “me” time.
Tracks 4 and 7 are more upbeat and merry. But essentially, what stirs you throughout this album is the realisation that the breath is what brings you closer to God, that is the ‘ruh’ or the soul. Kim’s brand of music is based on the movement of breath and an inner connection to the mind and spirit.
The album is a must for world music conoisseurs and anyone who enjoys the world of Islam.

- Kuranda Seyit, Australia Fair, Dec 05