Sketches By Michele McLaughlin

 

Sketches

By

Michele McLaughlin

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

 It shocked me a little, to note that I have been following the progression through the ranks of the Solo Piano genre by Michele McLaughlin for near on 10 years now, and remember well my first album of hers entitled Breathing in the Moment. Time and tide have indeed moved on from that point, and so has Michele as she delivers her latest release to us entitled Sketches.

This journey of the keys starts with a colourful number entitled At First Sight; a mood filled opus with great movement and style can be found here, and because of the time structure it has a wonderful cross cultured feel to the piece too, one that floats into the more Parisian energies of the musical psyche perhaps.

This being a fully improvised album makes it even more compelling, and to come up with a composition that is so deeply meaningful like Hope is sublime. The performance here touched me deeply, as we all need Hope now more than ever in the world, and this song for me was a heartfelt cry for it, and so beautifully played as well.

One Life is a piece that has a lightness of touch to its performance and construction; this is a song that welcomes in the sun on a brand new day, and dances with the dust of a day just passed. While Waiting is a composition that makes me think of our current situation globally in lockdown due to the pandemic, a sense of being held in a stasis or inactivity, and hoping for a change that seems so very far off.

The deliberate sense of onward movement was cleverly built into this piece by the artist; The Traveler is a track that will ring true in the hearts of the many of us who just cannot do that at the moment, but we can, vicariously through the music of Michele McLaughlin and this very composition.

As we approach the half way juncture of the album we come across a delicate offering entitled Farewell Little Love. This is a deeply moving composition, one that feels like it has been pulled from the deepest regions of the heart, the performance on piano here is one of the most sensitive I have heard for quite a while.

On Forever Yours, we have a piece that is a musical dedication; it contains a presentation of truth and honesty, and is so fluently played by the artist it is enough to bring a tear of joy from the eye of the listener.

We now walk with purpose into the second half of the album and as we do so we come across a wonderfully deep and confident creation entitled The Right Choice. Whether to make it or not matters little, the performance is powerful enough to know that the choice is going to be the right one, a sublime anthem styled offering from McLaughlin here.

There have been many of these in my years on this planet; The Long Night is one of those tracks that will resonate with many. The careful progression and touch of notes here is incredible, and leaves one hanging on for what’s coming next, which of course is a wonderfully reflective composition of great passion and sincerity.

Nicely placed after the preceding track we have a song entitled Relief, from the recital one could imagine waking from a long night of darkness, and perhaps to a sprinkling of hope filtering in through the open curtains, once more the artist finds herself in a wistful mood, and delivers a song that contains great feeling, skill and style.

This album may indeed be an ocean of improvisation, but look deeper and you may find a theme, a full flowing mood of sorts, as Home At Last certainly seems to round off a triad of thought provoking arrangements, and concluding with the happy reverie of this very piece, and is without doubt one of the warmest offerings off the album as well.

Our penultimate track off this inventive collection of fine piano performances is entitled Lost. There is a classical mood to the beginning of this track that is nice to hear, but add the moody melody and theme, the result is a brooding film score styled opus, the presentation here was also wonderfully crafted and a joy to listen to.

The last sketch we can interpret is called Unshakeable, and this colourful musical narrative is the perfect ending piece with which to conclude this manifestation of solo piano arrangements and the pristine performance leaving us in no doubt that McLaughlin is one of the finest solo pianists of her time.

Sketches by Michele McLaughlin is a moment of total creative freedom for the artist, her fluency and warm performances thrill our senses, her mood filled reveries encapsulate our own feelings, there is indeed something on this album for everyone, and Sketches by Michele McLaughlin must be rated as one of the best works by the artist thus far, and the ultimate panacea to cure our musical woes.