Beyond Your Dreams By James Michael Stevens

 

Beyond Your Dreams

By

James Michael Stevens

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

There have been many pianists that have drawn landscapes of beauty from their piano over the decades, but one of the legendary ones in this modern era must be James Michael Stevens, his calming reveries have soothed the soul and eased the furrowed brow over the last 3 to four years for me personally, and he is back again with another blissful collection of sublime songs called Beyond Your Dreams.

One constant is James desire to manifest tranquil tones of an almost healing nature from his piano, and on tracks like the title offering Beyond Your Dreams, and the following musical narrative A Simple Peace you can hear just that and more, as each creation manifests a warm bed of sound and comfort.

This album is a 12 track opus of many delights; songs like Moments of Tranquillity raised my flagging energies with its flowing cascade like motifs and its happy melody, while arrangements like Soon the Butterflies drew artistically, musical descriptions about one of my favourite creatures, and Steven’s beautifully portrayed a delightful gossamer like performance on this track with such a textured ease.

One of the most impressive compositions from the album was the darker side of the artist on the piece Beneath a Solemn Sky. One could imagine with ease walking out on a day, as the stratus clouds hang low and ominous over a sad and sullen landscape, the use of the minor chord here was incredibly creative and much appreciated.

James Michael Stevens is a prolific composer of soothing musical piano narratives and on Unsung Lullaby, our last track, he delivers a composition that rounds things nicely up for us all. The melody reminds me of misty old attic where score sheets lay, but perhaps the last sheet is missing, lost to the dusts of time themselves, in this last but amazingly artistically created composition, one could imagine a song like this last manifestation being used in a ghostly theme within a movie perhaps.

Beyond Your Dreams by James Michael Stevens is another classy album in a long line of releases that will bring the listener calmness and serenity, but also here is an album that takes its audience on a journey of mystery and imagination like never before, and as such I rate this as the best work of the artist thus far, without a shadow of a doubt Beyond Your Dreams by James Michael Stevens has to be a must by for any serious piano fans across the globe and anyone who likes their music to take them somewhere.