Wednesday 17 May 2017

Review of Paul Noble's "Inspired" new Album of his piano compositions

Click for CD Baby


Click for CDBaby
So you know about the angle I am coming from. I am a piano tuner (est.1981) so I am aware of piano and keyboard repertoire. O and A level music introduced us to Bachs Brandenburg No 5, and Debussy Preludes and some of Chopin and Liszt Brahms and Rachmaninov.
I thought Richard Clayderman too saccharine.-
Like some of Elton John's more inspired songs.-
Find Glass,Nyman and Einaudi either too repetitive or feel I could compose better. (Have produced a double CD in the 90s)
As Glass Nyman and Einaudi have similarities, and Paul Noble writes at times in similar vein I have to accept that the current vibe cannot be denied and that perhaps it is preparing us for what we need, which is to be in touch with our insides more meditatively, and inspiration knows better than any of us what we need next. So instead of hiding, like it or lump it, it IS what is going on, what is MEANT TO BE.
So having thought along these lines and knowing Paul personally, which can be a huge stumbling block, because everybody tends to ignore "the prophet" or "artist" in their back yard, I have been super enthused the more I have played these tracks. The variety of material and mood is actually very inventive, and the tunes grow on you like pop hooks. Some are like Joplin's "Entertainer" which when it became famous again in the 70s for The Sting, was sniffily received by classical critics. But ragtime is what it is, and you can't just dismiss a whole genre of inventiveness, and The Entertainer is one of the finest, and has endured over the last 40 years even more so.
Western intellectuals have this tendency to call deeper emotions "good classical" and lighter happier expressions as "vapid", "lightweight", "not worthy of critical review". Because of this insane bias whole cultures of music are never explored, such as
Spanish, Mexican, Cuban and Argentinian music.
So while not presenting Paul's album as a Spanish orientated album, you will be taken into many worlds and moods, some overtly Mozartian, others more expressive of Seasons (Winter) or Nature (Spring, By The Sea. Mountain Top). This is a MUST BUY , and has a variety of uses, as foreground music, background music, meditation music of substance(yes I DO have a bias against much vapid New Age stuff) and piano music for you to have a go at.

No comments: