Soul of a River By Jon Durant

 

Soul of a River

By

Jon Durant

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

Jon Durant could not have chosen a better subject to create an album about for me than this one, as rivers have been one of the many constants in my life, and many happy memories surround them in my relationship with my late father, in fact my debut single is about the river, so it was with eager anticipation that I reviewed this total gem of an album by Jon Durant.

Soul of a River as ambient music goes is a masterpiece, like Music for Airports by Eno or Buddha Nature by Deuter, if your ambient music collection is to be complete, it is going to have to have a copy of Soul of a River in it.

Masterful performances like Tributaries set the scene with perfection; the repeating piano motif and the simply idyllic guitar from Durant, take us as listeners to the very bank side of this mystical and magical place.

On Estuary we actually do have a moment of ambient magic that took me back to the days of Budd and Eno combined. I cannot rate this album and this specific track highly enough, but please, take your time here, listen to the music and watch the flow of the water, and the flights of the flocks of birds on take-off and landing, it’s all in here in this incredible offering and more.

The up-tempo sparkling performances on Glistening is so redolent of the subject matter, whilst the long and languid tranquillity that one can obtain from Watercourse is simply a musical blessing that needs to deeply be appreciated.

Durant goes long form on Current, a piece so fluent and effective it is hard not to leave on repeat, the build and progression here is sublime, and then to finish the project with the outstanding Flow was pure genius, a track that does what it says on the can, it flows and does so, with such a supreme sense of ambience, that one cannot be anything but moved by the performance.

Soul of a River by Jon Durant has to be a potential award winning album and one that will certainly stay rooted on my personal music player for ages. This album is the perfect example of a creation manifested into this world by an artist that clearly knows, feels and sees all around him, and then has that wonderful ability to bring it all together, to create an album of utter blissful brilliance.