REVIEW: DAVID WAHLER - Christmas at Home

DAVID WAHLER 
Christmas at Home
Self-released (2018)

New age soundscape sculptor extraordinaire David Whaler weaves a soothing, serene ode to Christmas on his digital-download only EP release, Christmas at Home. As I have recounted in my reviews of previous Wahler recordings, very few artists are as adept as interweaving layers of electronic keyboards into a seamless whole as this artist does (Kevin Kendle comes to mind, but as of yet, Kendle has yet to release a holiday album). Wahler excels at melding his assorted keyboard melodies, textures, and rhythms in a way to make the end result sound almost organic in nature, rather than assembled bit by bit. This brief but extremely enjoyable selection of five carols is no exception. Ranging from four and a half minutes to just a literal tick below six, this EP is sublime at creating a mood of relaxation and beauty, although admittedly the opening "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" does up the melody’s tempo and a subtle rhythm is in the mix. From that opening, though, we are setting the meter for slow and serene (until the concluding song). An ethereal take on "Oh Holy Night" features harp and angelic chorales and well-placed ambient textures. "Silent Night" begins with celestial tones set against echoed piano, steeped in beauty and beautifully rendered. Twinkling tonalities and plucked guitar are featured on "What Child Is This?" alongside gentle bell tones, as if chimes being blown by gentle winds. Later, flute takes the lead as well as horn and the beautiful base melody of the carol is brought to the forefront. Christmas at Home concludes with the spirited original composition "Snowflake" and it  energizes the conclusion with piano, synth pads, and ambient elements coalescing into a playful celebration of childlike exuberance with fast tempo rhythm carried not by beats but by the music itself. A joyous conclusion to a too-short but ever so sweet musical delving into the wonder of the holiday season.

Christmas at Home is available at CDBaby, Amazon and iTunes. 

REVIEW: ANDREW COLYER - Christmas Time - Solo Piano Improvisations

ANDREW COLYER 
Christmas Time – Solo Piano Improvisations
Inner Nova Music (2018)

Christmas Time is a collection of, shall I say, interesting interpretations/arrangements of traditional holiday/Christmas music (some originals are also on the album) from pianist Andrew Colyer. Subtitled "Solo Piano Improvisations," the liner notes describe how these eleven tracks are 100 percent of the moment including, in the words of the artist, "warts and all." Four of the eleven tracks are penned by the artist and they include some of the best songs here. If you love a more standard version of carols such as "Silent Night," "Let It Snow," and "We Three Kings," you may want to give this a pass. I will say that the first time I played the album, I was unsure how I felt about it, but it grew on me once I surrendered my preconceptions of how these songs should sound. No such bias prevented me from enjoying the original numbers, all of which range from quite pleasant to downright beautiful. "Melancholy Holiday" is somber yet beautiful, a downtempo number that evokes the feelings of those who spend the holiday season alone and lonely. Lower register chords are combined with middle register refrains to impart of sensation of weight and drama while the upper register runs do little to "brighten" the mood, which is as intended, most likely. "A Night in Brooklyn" shares a slight sensation of somberness with "Melancholy Holiday" but it is less dark and more apt to depict walking through the streets late at night with snow falling softly, musing on the holiday and what it offers, both good and bad.

Colyer’s interpretations of the standards vary widely, but none as stridently so as "Let It Snow in New Orleans" and the title basically spells out what you will hear, i.e. a boogie-woogie/jazzy take on the secular carol, with a bouncy rhythm and an infectious joyfulness. "Laissez les bon temps roule" indeed, especially at Christmastime! Among the artist’s more interesting arrangements is what he does with a two-part (tracks 3 and 9) re-working of Vince Guaraldi’s iconic tune, "Christmas Time Is Here." Given a stark and minimalist interpretation, I first thought to myself "Where is the song’s childlike joyfulness and warmth?" Later on, I started viewing it as how someone my age, who first watched A Charlie Brown Christmas as a young boy might now feel about not so much the song itself, but the holiday, i.e. viewing it less with starry-eyed wonder and more as a well-worn glow of nostalgia. Part 2 of the "separated" piece hews closer to the original but still offers a unique take with a slight jazzier inflection. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" also gets a more somber, low-key interpretation, retaining the warmth of the melody but also creating some minimalist space between the notes.

Christmas Time may not be an immediately enjoyable holiday music album, but from my perspective, this actually works in its favor (as it did for me), as I slowly but surely came to appreciate not just Colyer’s imaginative improvisations, but also the mixing and mastering of the album (it sounds fantastic!). I suggest checking it out if you are in the mood for something both old and new!

Christmas Time is available at CDBaby, Amazon, and iTunes.

DVD REVIEW: New Horizon - Aerial Ambience Relaxing the Mind, Calming the Spirit

AERIAL AMBIENCE: NEW HORIZON

Relaxing the Mind, Calming the Spirit

A collaboration between Sky Lakes Media

and the music duo Minstrel Streams

For a brief time (mid '80s to early '90s) the now-defunct Miramar record label took some new age music albums and joined the evocative music with equally beautiful nature photography, creating, in essence, a video music album using the VHS format. The first two were well-known collaborations between David Lanz and Paul Speer (Natural States in 1985 and Desert Vision in 1987). Those were followed by Pete Bardens' (R.I.P.) Water Colours in 1991 and Tangerine Dreams' Canyon Dreams in 1992. This format never really caught on, although I personally enjoyed them (the label also released some ground-breaking computer animation videos in the "Mind's Eye" series).

Fast forward to now, and nature videography has grown by leaps and bounds due to two technological advances: high definition digital video and drone videography (allowing pictures never before possible via helicopter). As a result, Mark and Michelle Unger decided to resurrect the concept of nature videos set to new age music via their company Sky Lakes Media. The pair joined forces with another couple, Matt and Rebecca Stuart (who record under the name of Minstrel Streams) and the result is the video "album" (on DVD format) titled New Horizon (this appears to be the first release in a series entitled Aerial Ambience). The DVD title is also the title  of the album by the Stuarts and features music from that well-reviewed album (of which I wrote "The music has a timeless grace, a rich beauty, and an overwhelmingly lovely and simple charm, [simple meaning not cluttered with artifice or embellished needlessly]. There is so much inherent warmth and good will present throughout all thirteen selections that it would be damn near impossible to stay in a bad mood (if you started out that way) and played the whole album through.").

The thirteen selections feature beautifully shot videos of locations in southern Oregon and northern California and the images are, indeed, stunning! From the opening selection, "Ancient Mariner," with video of Indian Sands on the majestic southern Oregon coastline, we then set out for the Smith River area of northern California on the track "Come to the Waters," and progress on from there, visiting lakes, canyons, mountain ranges, more coastline, and even a vineyard! Some videos are ground-based, many are from drones in flight, and there are even some underwater shots! The amazing visuals are wedded to the wonderful melodies of the Stuarts' music (who even appear on camera in the vineyard track, "Golden Treasures"). I am particularly awed by the coastal videos, but that's a matter of my being emotionally drawn to coastlines, because the rivers, the canyons, the mountains, are all beautiful.

Joining Matt (guitar and piano) and Rebecca (flutes) are some stellar guest artists, including Jill Haley (English horn), Paul Kochanski (string bass), Eugene Friesen (cello), Noah Wilding (vocals), Matt Heaton (bodhran), and Tom Eaton on percussion and accordion. The music was recorded at Will Ackerman's Imaginary Road Studios in Vermont and Tom Eaton handled the engineering, mixing and mastering, so you know this is a video album that will sound as good as it looks!

Hopefully, New Horizon (the DVD) will inspire others to bring this format back to life. With the aforementioned advances in technology, the time is right. Viewed on a big screen HDTV with good speakers (e.g. a high end soundbar such as I have) it's quite the experience (especially the drone fly-overs). Tempo and energy level of the songs vary, but not distractingly so. However, one can always just watch one or two of the videos as a way of "whisking away" from the everyday and de-stressing. Or one might also view this as a precursor to voyaging to these locales to glimpse what lies ahead! Either way, or however you experience this DVD, it's a fantastic merging of the two mediums. I applaud both the Ungers and the Stuarts – well done, folks!

The DVD seems to be only available at CDBaby. I haven;t been able to find any sample videos (sorry).