We can blame Debussy for the enigmatic title (Air) of this new CD that mixes harp, flute, and viola into an oft-smoothing and always lovely rendition of the French composer's work as well as that of Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. Debussy wrote that "Music is a free art, gushing forth -- an open-air art, an art boundless as the elements, the wind, the sky, the sea! I love music passionately, and because I love it I try to free it from the barren traditions that stifle it." One of life's little ironies is, of course, that Debussy himself has now become a tradition, one that Takemitsu seized on a generation later when he sought to combine dreamy spiritual and physical elements such as "water, trees, gardens, sky, birds, wind, the flickering images of film, and the quiverings of the human heart" to the "quiet inner place where the spirit dwells." The commute home (or anywhere) seems less frantic listening to this gorgeous CD that features harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, who teaches harp at Oberlin Conservatory; Joshua Smith, principal flute of the Cleveland Orchestra; Cynthia Phelps, principal viola of the New York Philharmonic; and the string orchestra Oberlin 21, an ensemble of Oberlin Conservatory students conducted by Bridget-Michaele Reischl, Music Director of the Oberlin Orchestras.