Portraits By Laurence Furr

 

Portraits

By

Laurence Furr

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

Laurence Furr is a musical artisan of great quality and style, and his reveries on harp have helped many during their time of need, during their desires to relax and seek a comforting sanctuary of music away from the craziness of the world, or perhaps to just listen to beautiful calming music that will take you on a graphic journey through sight and sound, this is Portraits by Laurence Furr.

Imagine yourself at the doorway to a vast art gallery of tone and timbre; imagine that those many pieces of glorious art work that adorn these clean white walls of this temple of artistic endeavour are simply waiting for you, and with it, each painting has its own musical tale to tell, today this voyage of musical delight is one we shall travel with the artist.

From the first portrait entitled The Chanter, we are gifted a pathway through instrumental music like none before, the delicate pastiche of tone here is amazingly soothing and allows us easy access to this gallery of perfect resonance with a wonderfully fluent and ambient construct.

As we move along we find a piece called The Traveler, this short form narrative is as pleasing as a May sunrise, and its milieu is a delightfully light and ever onward projection of ambience. Whilst offerings like My True Love have deeper waters with which to swim in, and offer a musical sincerity to enjoy and delight within.

The lyrical climate manifested by pieces like the humble and heart felt offerings of David's Harp, or the mournful and reflective energies of Rosemary may take one back to the early years of folk music and evoke many loving memories of easier times and brighter days.

The angelic and pristine vibrations of Fairy Lurr manifest an almost china doll of a composition, the upbeat tempo and uplifting musical narrative is a most pleasing and pleasant experience indeed.

However the longest composition from the album is up next at just under six minutes and entitled Brother, Sister, Parent, Child. This is an interesting arrangement, a piece that seems to grow as it goes and allows the listener to flow with their own memories of time and tide and family life, this presentation by Furr would be one of my personal favourites from the album.

Like the previously aforementioned track Rosemary, here is another song that took me back to my youth in the most strangest of ways, as I would find Will You Go, or Heather here on the B side of a single by the Strawb’s in ‘73, regardless this Celtic reverie still brings chills to the arms, in a song of great meaning and beauty.

Portraits is a 16 track master work of utter quality by Laurence Furr and contains something for everyone, with songs like the unforgettable and moving ballad of Rosie McCann, to the curiously entitled Debbie Under A Pink Sky, which I have just found out thanks to my wife’s research for the album show for this release, is a summer story of sunsets, Martini’s and happy days.

The next marvellous offering from the album is the haunting Molly's Ghost, take a careful listen here and see if you can pick out where you last heard it. This somewhat deeper musical echo of the past is a brilliant expression by Furr, who has taken the original and made a much darker and more relevant composition from its novel inception.

From composition to creation, Furr has brought into life a wonderful well of peace to drift off into, like the pieces entitled The Butterfly, an almost gig of a composition recreating the creatures fleeting gossamer moments, or the Six-Winged Seraph, a comforting configuration of fluency and harp mastery.

We can also travel back in time with this release and view a soundtrack of events on this next piece called Mary, Queen of Scots. Another Celtic musical moment that takes us back to the energies of around 700 years in the past, but the stone tape theory of those haunting days perhaps still linger on in the halls of Fotheringhay Castle, in another mysterious and evocative composition from the artist.

The penultimate portrait is entitled Silver Birch, and its memorable tones manifest a wonderfully gentle meditative moment for us to enjoy, while the project is concluded with the final manifestation called This Old Man, now I would defy most people to say they didn’t know this one, I think children to this day are taught this jolly folk tune, one which can be traced back as far as the late 1870’s.

Portraits by Laurence Furr is an album that captures all the emotions and moods one can simply have, indeed it is a veritable gallery of musical art that will display something for everyone. The 16 tracks within this collective accomplishment of Harp distinction are works of sublime peace and tranquillity. I defy you to listen to this album in full and not be totally chilled out at its conclusion. Portraits by Laurence Furr, is an album that the new age music genre has been waiting for, a sure fire hit with the listeners and a guaranteed success on the charts with ease.