Boudica By Jon Richards

 

Boudica

By

Jon Richards

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

There is good news my lord, I have gazed into the future, and my scrying mirror informs me that we must prepare for one of the finest musical warriors of the land to arrive, as the mighty bard Jon Richards is back, and with a brand new and powerful release called Boudica.

Boudica is regarded as a national heroine for Britain still to this day, and perhaps ever onwards, some might say it was a shame she never managed to win against the vast swathes of the Roman Empire, Britain would have been a very different place indeed. Here the artist has taken that subject matter and created a truly fascinating offering of a multi-instrumental delight.

The title track Boudica of course leads the way on point, and is a marvellously colourful pastiche of new age and Celtic music combined in what is a lush instrumental paradise. The opening offering moves along gently, with a light percussion and strings, ones raising the rhythms in an almost David Arkenstone kind of way.

The Druidess has a blissful sense of lightness and mystery about its compositional structure, which one could with ease float away on its bed of sweet tonal delights. The light Celtic pipes led the way and the drum partners a tapestry of tone that marches over the misty landscape, also note the textured vocalisations towards the latter half of this offering too.

The acoustic start to this next offering was simply splendid and ushered in the track Twilight Invocation with such a delightful sense of subtlety. At well over eight minutes, one has more than enough time to drift into the other world on a bed of soft vibrations, an almost Gregorian chant, both male and female greets us on our musical journey, one that leads to a soft but ever increasing climax on one of the most beautiful pieces off the release.

Andraste is where the album takes a darker tone, one through the compositional structure and its mysterious and ominous intent; we can hear the great queen crying out this term which I believe means victory, at the very top of her voice. The reflective passage in this arrangement gives us the listener, a haunting and somewhat thoughtful musical composition to observe and float within, a dramatic offering indeed and in my view film worthy.

On our next musical foray we come across is a piece called A Call to Arms, one that encapsulates the expression, “build and progression” perfectly, combining a deft flute with electric guitars and keyboards at its helm, and gentle percussive element leads us through a splendid and colourful arrangement, one that manifests a mood of expectation with ease.

Next on our ever onward journey through the hills and valleys of this fantastic journey of the album Boudica by Jon Richards, is the track March of Fate, the title expresses this perfectly, whilst the mood is upbeat and confident, there is an underpinned element here, where one can feel a strange sense of resignation within the weave of this superb instrumental creation.

The album is slowly brought to a climax by giving us a musical overview of her tribe from the east of England called the Iceni. This next musical composition is played out beautifully, with a reflective energy bathed in a Celtic refrain that seems to cry out across the ages, perhaps even to this day. Ghosts of the Iceni is a superior offering, one of great artistic endeavour and mastery.

The concluding creation sums it all up nicely and called Lost Freedom, and forever more this is a truism perhaps, the fate of Britain is in the hands of the empire and all is lost. The piece itself is a mournful composition with Uilleann pipes, a soft string section and a gentle resigned motif that is akin to the last few panned out shots of a movie, what a splendid way with which to conclude the album indeed.

Jon Richards in my view has created a master work here on his latest release Boudica; he has crafted a collection of songs with such skill and dexterity, and with such an amazing awareness of the subject matter, and brought to us ever eager listeners a release that is encapsulating and totally addictive to listen to. If ever an album deserved to be a huge hit this one does, and perhaps there is still one andraste left, one that drifts across the timeless worn torn battlefields of Britain, to bring the artist one of the biggest musical victories of his career thus far, for Jon Richards and Boudica.