12th - Treasures by Rada Neal

 

12th – Treasures

By

Rada Neal

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

There are few pianists around in this genre today that are as descriptive and fluent as Rada Neal, her ability to manifest soothing musical narratives on her piano are palpable, and I can speak volumes about this encapsulating performance after having listened to the entire album and being totally spellbound by its creative beauty, so today we journey through the realm of 12th – Treasures her latest release.

I have known of Rada’s work now for some near on 20 years now, the first release I came across back in 2005 called Timeless Third still lingers long in my mind to this day. Here on her brand new creation she manifests comforting reveries like Come What May, a gentle narrative of acceptance perhaps, this is followed that up with the stunning eloquence of In the Silence, a track I could gaze out of the window in the middle of a quiet day too and simply lose all knowledge of time.

There is warmth to Rada’s style that reminds me of the late but great Annie Locke, she like Annie, brings a comforting cuddle along with her music, compositions that give such a feeling of tender warmth for me were Floating and Sweet Dreams, the latter’s sublime melody was truly special also.

Here fans of solo piano will find 12 tracks of absolute delight and pleasure, offerings like Time Stood Still will add a slight air of mystery into the proceedings, whilst the composition Passages added a dramatic flavour onto the plate of our musical table, perhaps an escape has been made from an unsavoury circumstance.

Rada then concludes the project with the penultimate offering entitled Story of the Night, a powerful performance can be found here, this was a personal favourite of mind, in an almost Phantom of the Opera moment, whilst the endeavour itself is brought to a close with the last piece called Sledding, something I haven’t done for too many years to count!

12th – Treasures by Rada Neal was one of the most pleasurable listens I have had of any album recently, its soothing pastiche of solo piano music was both enchanting and captivating, in my view this album contains some of her best work thus far, and fans of this genre worldwide really shouldn’t miss it.  12th – Treasures by Rada Neal is a musical panacea, a cathartic journey of tone and timbre to be truly valued.