Some albums can change you.
According to the Moon—the collaboration of Grammy-nominated composer Cheryl B. Engelhardt and frequency alchemist GEM—exists in that rare space between meditation and revelation. More than music, it’s a 55-minute sensory pilgrimage where every frequency, silence, and texture serves intention.
Born across continents—from Cheryl’s dawn Mont Blanc meditations to GEM’s recording studio in Australia—the album unfolds as a continuous lunar cycle. Nine tracks flow seamlessly: the hopeful ascent of “Dawnlight”, the abyssal depths of “Abyss”, the perfect equilibrium of “Betwixt”.
When asked what was their intention for the album GEM replies “To make ambient architecture for the nervous system”.
As a listener you understand instantly what she means, this music is designed not for background, but as a place you inhabit, where the boundaries between listener and landscape dissolve.
“Glimmer” channels the album’s somatic power through Deb Dana’s research on micro-moments of safety and UC Berkeley’s neural rewiring studies. The result functions as auditory medicine: Cheryl’s suspended piano provides the architecture while GEM’s ambient textures induce physiological release. Dallas String Quartet’s strings materialize like atmospheric pressure changes—felt before heard—but the true emotion lives in GEM’s vocals: paradoxically wordless but articulate, channeling healing directly to the nervous system.
At the album’s core lies “Mountain Meditation”, where Cheryl’s piano motifs—composed overlooking the L’Arve River—merged seamlessly with transformative ambient production. Field recordings of alpine winds and rushing water become rhythmic elements, expertly balanced by multi-Grammy winner Lonnie Park’s mix. The result? This song does not bring you to the mountain, it brings the mountain to you.
The album’s title isn’t accidental. According to the Moon explores duality through sound: GEM’s electronic pulsations mirror celestial mechanics, while Cheryl’s harmonic progressions trace lunar phases. Their greatest revelation? That ambient’s power lies in synthesis—the space where classical precision and frequency medicine become indistinguishable. Nowhere is this clearer than in “Nightside”, where vocal loops morph into rhythm, or “Crescent Cradle”, which submerges Cheryl’s piano in oceanic field recordings.
Even their presence mirrors this contrast: GEM, with bright blonde hair and an ambient sound palette, meets Cheryl’s dark brunette energy and New Age compositional style. Their union—visually and musically—presents an integrated whole, where contrast becomes cohesion.
Why Now?
In an era of fractured attention, this album offers radical presence. Composed, arranged, and performed entirely by women, it rejects algorithmic thinking in favor of lunar logic: cyclical, intentional, and unapologetically deep.’
As GEM observes: “Before there was light, there was frequency.” This album lives in that primordial space—where science and intuition merge into moonlit sound.