Night By Antonija Pacek

 

Night

By

Antonija Pacek

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

Antonija Pacek has been a name that has been a constant companion musically for me throughout the years of the pandemic; music is indeed a panacea, one that creates images and healing as it goes, here Antonija delivers a vast body of work to her fans and listeners entitled Night, and within the constraints of this new album we find some of the most tender and touching material from the artist yet.

So let’s now start this journey through a piano based wonderland with the artist now, and our first few explorative steps are taken with the piece Night. This quite beautiful piano performance has passion, emotional, tension and a fluency of tone and timbre like few openers these days have, and I must say this is a sublime start to this musical journey indeed.

Antonija follows that moving opus up with one of the finest piano pieces I think I have heard this year with, To You. Here we hear artistry in motion, we feel the emotive resonances of her performance; when I first heard the tones of this track it was an instant like, and I fell in love within seconds with what is a truly beautiful composition.

Awakening is film score standard, this song is a wondrous manifestation of sound and vibrations, the orchestral elements are beautifully arranged, and once more the musician has brought to us a composition of  pure class, one that is bathed in a stunning light of performance so grand and empowering.

Felt piano is a difficult medium to use, but Pacek does a wonderful job on the next two pieces, which are indeed both of the Felt variety in Hopeful and Touch. Her technique and eventual soundings are pretty perfect, with the melody being the prime mover in both pieces.

When we arrive at the track Grace my cup runs over with joy, this is solo piano at its very best, fluency, a textured performance, one with colours and energies of utter tranquillity and calm, all abound within this powerful yet tender creation.

The light hearted qualities of this next track are cleverly presented on the song A Child's Game; yes this is a composition that does what it says on the can, but here is an arrangement that contains so much inside, the gentleness of presentation contains a confidence of what may lay ahead.

We can now move to a tribute manifestation as we listen to For Alina, this happy refrain flows like a crisp mountain stream in March, whilst drifting into the following track entitled Like a Bird, here I believe that Pacek has achieved the energy of one of our winged creatures, through her aspects of musical freedom, that one will find within this track, at times anthem like, but joyous and simply unchained in a beautiful melodious fashion.

The sadness of this next piece is almost palpable and called Sky's Crying. The more I listen to this Felt piece, the more I remember days of my own sadness, as I wallowed in the mists of suffering, as grey skies loomed and tears fell in cascades from the clouds above, but things change, they always do, however this stunning reverie is incredibly composed and performed.

The perfect piece ends the album, well in a fashion, but I will explain briefly, however here lays a track that somehow seemed familiar to me and called Thank You. Music does that to us from time to time, it touches parts that have remained dormant, only waiting for the right chord vibration or tone to resurrect them into your life once again, never the less, this delightful composition was the perfect one with which to end the album with.

Now a brief explanation to my aforementioned statement about ending the album, because after Thank You will find no less than 6 bonus tracks to enjoy, making this an amazing 17 track compilation of creative genius, the said compositions you will already have heard on the release, but performed in alternate styles.

Night by Antonija Pacek is one of those piano based albums you really don’t want to let slip through your fingers, her presentations, performances and compositions are truly magnificent, her ability to manifest pure emotion from the piano is magical and simply wonderful be a part of as a listener, and as such this album is a world, a realm of music and emotion that is all too easy to get lost within. With ease Night by Antonija Pacek is the artists best work by far, and a voyage of fascination and feelings that any listener would be more than happy to be a part of.