2002 - The Wishing Well

​2002

​The Wishing Well
self-released; 2025

By Dan Weston

I’m strangely fixated on the name 2002. I tried to find some explanation for it and came up empty, so I kept circling back to the year itself, as if that might unlock something about the music. The band has apparently been active since the 90s, and Wishing Well marks their 23rd album which is very impressive. There is a patience to this record, a devotion to stillness and low-burning new age melancholy that is undeniably cinematic. 

“Overture: The Restless Heart” opens the album in a wash of orchestral synths and suspended strings. It leans fully into drama. The textures are airy and expansive, swelling in slow arcs that feel engineered for widescreen emotion. Halfway through, the piece pivots into something even more heightened, like a montage sequence from a big-budget fantasy film like Avatar. I found myself pulled in by the scale and the sense of lift. It is playful without being naïve, grand without tipping into bombast. This was easily my favorite piece on the record, partly because it reaches so far outward, feels playful and is very dynamic. It feels singular in its ambition.

“Three Wishes” draws the lens closer. The piano lines are regal and measured, surrounded by soft harmonic halos that deepen the mood. The track carries a stately sadness, as if it is bowing to something already lost. “Twilight” continues in that same tonal register. The emotional temperature remains cool and reflective, stretching time rather than pushing it forward. “The Spiral of Heaven” extends that slow drift, letting nostalgia pool in the corners of its arrangement.

When “Dream Chasers” arrives, the energy shifts. The textures brighten and quicken, shimmering with new age flourishes that give the track a sense of motion. It feels almost luminous compared to the surrounding pieces. “Moon Lore” returns to a more hushed palette, while “A Safe Harbor” barely moves at all, resting in sustained tones that emphasize quiet over climax. “On the Wings of Angels” and “Bellehaven” each introduce subtle instrumental details that reward close listening, small gestures that ripple through the calm surface.

By the time “Savitri’s Dream” closes the album, I realized I had been constructing images in my head the entire time. The record operates through mood first and structure second. It builds environments more than hooks. I kept thinking less about individual melodies and more about the spaces they create. Whatever 2002 means, here it signals immersion.

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