Deep Currents By Douglas Morton

 

Deep Currents

By

Douglas Morton

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

The genre of piano is one of the biggest in the music business, its sheer size and monolithic proportions are incomparable, so to stand out in this realm you have to have something unique to give a totally spoilt audience something of an exciting alternative, Douglas Morton with his latest album Deep Currents has done that and doubly so, with one of the finest examples of ambient piano I have heard this year.

Make no bones about it, this is a huge body of work created by the artist, some 23 compositions can be found within this piano dimension called Deep Currents, and it is very easy to get lost in the wake of its piano tide, and get swept away on one creation after another, like the opener Art’s Tune, a dedication no doubt, one that gets pride of place as the beginning of our journey.

There are many moments of ambience to be found within the blankets of soft tonal structures here on the album, like the abundant flow of Decisions, a track that seems to be caught in the preponderance of the moment, but creates a compelling narrative to move onward, or the creative and memory filed opus of Downhill, one of those compositions that you find yourself enticed by, a slow but convincing alignment of notes can be found here.

The shadow lands of emotion are captivated brilliantly on the work Beyond Tears, whilst a more upbeat energy gifts us the track Necessity, and thus ushering in a change of mood within its compositional formation. There are also offerings of great texture and colour on the album; I would point to both Summer Gray and the brilliant Stillness for those moments of musical delight, the latter would turn out to be one of my personal favourites, and a sublime example of ambient piano if there ever was one.

The anthem styled, almost folk like structure of tracks like Never Ending, or the artistic creativity of another favoured piece of mine in The Bridge are happily on offer for the listener, the latter an idyllic day out in nature, over the bridge and far away into freedom, a quite beautiful composed piece indeed.

There can be no doubt that Morton has manifested something most pleasurable here with this album, and while the never ending construct of The Path becomes our intriguing penultimate offering, the fluent and charming reverie of Untold concludes our journey of harmonious piano, and does so with such grace and charisma, a sublime ending indeed, one of great character and tenderness.

Deep Currents by Douglas Morton is a veritable cornucopia of ambient piano delights; never has a massive album like this encapsulated my thoughts and imagination so much, and whilst doing so relaxed and soothed my senses in its halls of atmospheric mastery. For me this is solo piano at its very best, creative, artistic, thoughtful and reflective, what more could you ask for, as such a huge hit must be on the cards for Deep Currents by Douglas Morton, and moreover if you are a fan of piano in all its guises, then this album must be winging its way to your collection or playlists at all costs, it is indeed that good and under no circumstance be missed.