Tuning In to a Dream : The duo Celestial Winds, which performs regularly at CityWalk, is gaining fans and the praise of reviewers.

If this were a record industry fantasy, David Young and Lisa Franco would draw large crowds every time they played along CityWalk. During breaks, they would sell armfuls of their cassette tapes and compact discs from cardboard boxes. Then, a record company executive would offer them a contract.

In fact, all of that happened. Except that when the industry called, the flute-and-harp duo said no. It seems Young and Franco have written their own version of the fantasy.

Calling themselves Celestial Winds, they have sold 30,000 copies of their self-produced album and have worked their way onto the playlist at New Age radio stations across the country. They have performed at events for Elizabeth Taylor and Hillary Rodham Clinton and at the wedding of Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum.

Recently, the duo signed with an agent, a publicist and a distribution company to put their albums in record stores nationwide. But all of these entities work as subcontractors. Young and Franco retain control of everything--music, promotion, scheduling. They just finished a tour of college campuses and music festivals and returned to CityWalk, reclaiming a patch of concrete beside the Wolfgang Puck Cafe where they have forged a busker’s dream.

“I’d like to think we are contributing to a new Renaissance,” Franco said. “We spread out and play. We see the peoples’ faces. We see the couples. We hear the stories.”

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Dressed in billowing clothes, in purples and blues and jangling jewelry, the duo weaves a peaceful blend of New Age and classical music. Crowds inevitably draw closer. When the music stops, people reach for their wallets. Cassettes sell for $9, compact discs for $14. On a weekend night, Celestial Winds will earn as much as $1,500.

“We’re from Canada, and all day long I’ve been complaining about how people move so fast here,” said Deborah Dusseault of Victoria, British Columbia, one of the customers on a recent night. “Listening to this was nice. It was relaxing music.”

But this tale concerns more than music. It speaks to the pursuit of success, how dreams can change people and how, sometimes, the dream itself can change.

Both Young and Franco took to music at a young age, he on the recorder and she on the harp. Both forsook their childhood instruments for visions of stardom. As a young man, he played rock ‘n’ roll guitar while she toured Europe in jazz bands.

“So many musicians envision that some guy is going to pick you out of a crowd and make you a star,” Franco said. “I was that way.”

Young’s dreams, as well, were written on the parchment of a big-money record contract, in the flash of paparazzi cameras. And, like Franco, he ended up broke in Los Angeles.

“I did what I never, ever thought I would do,” he recalled. “I took my recorders down to Venice Beach and I played for two hours and didn’t make one dollar. I felt like a loser.”

That same afternoon, Franco showed up with her harp. She and Young had met before and they decided to jam. She played chord progressions while he improvised leads.

“Before we knew it, we had a huge crowd around us and there was a couple there, 65 years old, white hair, they slow-danced in front of us,” Young recalled. “And we had a basketful of money.”

The same thing happened the next day, and the next weekend. Franco then talked Young into spending his last $100 to rent a recording studio. They cut an album in six hours and spent the last of his money on a pizza. Young persuaded a friend to make 50 copies of the tape on credit.

“I can remember Lisa and I driving to Venice Beach with the tapes,” he said. “We were praying that people would like the music and buy it.”

They sold all 50 tapes in one weekend.

On a Friday night, with crowds thrumming along CityWalk, the music echoes as if from a distance. A group of high school kids stop to listen. Couples stand arm-in-arm. Joey Van Son III and his little brother, Chris, slump on a nearby bench, holding their pet boa.

“She gets good vibes from this music,” Joey said.

The melodies are disarmingly simple. Even the people who promote Celestial Winds--the group’s new distributor and publicist--cannot say what draws people to the songs. At first listen, it sounds like elevator music.

But there is something more.

“I’m sitting there and in one hour I (see) 400 people buy their tape,” said Harvey Cooper, who now handles marketing and promotion for the duo. “Being in the record industry, I thought you couldn’t sell anything that way. I was knocked out.”

The duo has also earned positive reviews. Most have come from New Age critics. But Minneapolis’ Request Magazine recently praised Celestial Winds for carving a “unique niche in the music business” and displaying a street savvy reminiscent of punk rockers.

“You just get caught up in it,” said Jennifer Greene of Las Vegas, who saw the duo at CityWalk. “I usually listen to classic rock. This was just pretty.”

A year and a half ago, when talent scouts raided Venice Beach to hire acts for the newly opened CityWalk, Young and Franco weren’t there.

“We were playing a wedding,” Young said. “Lisa loves doing weddings. I hate them.”

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Six months passed before puppeteer Lee Zimmerman, one of the Venice acts that got recruited, talked CityWalk management into auditioning Celestial Winds.

“I thought they were good,” said Ricky Day, the mall’s special event manager. “But it’s hard to know what the public is going to be into.”

Again, Celestial Winds had drawn a lukewarm reaction. Even Young considered the duo a sideline, a weekend gig that paid the bills while he pursued rock ‘n’ roll stardom. But playing at CityWalk made for bigger crowds and, soon, he and Franco were earning $1,000 a night.

“It was so overwhelming,” Young recalled. “I said, ‘I’d have to be nuts to leave this.’ ”

Once he and Franco turned their full attention to Celestial Winds, the rest fell into place.

Do not be mistaken--if a record company offers Celestial Winds big money, the duo will jump at the chance. But Young and Franco are doing well enough to turn down the modest contracts that have come their way. And they keep in mind that a grass-roots approach got them where they are.

“Being a talented musician is not always the same as being an entertainer,” Young said. “The way to succeed in the music business is to create a unique product and keep doing that one thing.”

So the two continue to spend their days with tasks that musicians usually leave to managers--the phone calls to record stores and concert venues. They take pride in the music they make and continue to play it on the pavement.

“I hope we never lose that,” Franco said. “When I started doing music that was closest to my heart, that was when the success came.”

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Where and When

What: Celestial Winds with David Young and Lisa Franco.

Location: Universal CityWalk, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City.

Hours: 5 to 9 tonight. Hours vary between 3 and 9 p.m. daily through December.

Price: Admission is free; parking is $6.

Call: (818) 622-4455.