Precious Stones By Al Jewer & Andy Mitran

 

Precious Stones

By

Al Jewer & Andy Mitran

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

Today I was in for a cornucopia of multi instrumental delight with the release of the brand new, and much awaited new album from Al Jewer & Andy Mitran, entitled Precious Stones, many of the tracks were of course familiar to me over the preceding months and years before as singles, but it was absolutely glorious to see them all in one place now in 2025, I have longed for a truly good crystal, precious stones album, to bring the entire concept up to date, and I am pleased to say this release nails it.

The classy multi instrumental pastiche of utter quality contains no less than 11 sublime pieces, that look at various gems that we have loved and adored for a lifetime, the duo are joined by bass and cello supremo Hans Christian on many of the compositions, a delight that adds a multitude of layers to each construction he performs on.

The opening foray is entitled Moonstone ft Hans Christian, a sumptuous layered manifestation of a mysterious feminine energy can be found here, the fretless bass offers so much depth, whilst the keyboards, the lightness and compassion offsets an almost Eastern motif with the slight percussive beat and a light crescendo.  

Many of your favourite offerings are here, the delicate Sapphire ft Hans Christian, with its sensitive chimes, strings and hovering intensity, whilst tracks like Emerald ft Hans Christian, one of my personal favourite stones, gifts each and every listener a soft piano and keyboard reverie with a deepening cello, adding an in depth nuance to the overall narrative of the creation.

In the second half of the album we find the sparkling reverie of Diamond, this is a crafted manifestation, raising the rhythm slightly, but holding its glistening musical body in an instrumental cohesion, one supported by a fluent guitar performance by Kraig McCreary, and an energetic but melodic piano of Andy Mitran.

There literally is something for everyone here on this incredible album, tracks like the deeply meditative Obsidian, or the soothing refrains of another favourite of mine in Opal, there all here to bring a true cathartic experience for the listener.

The last two tracks both features the skill set of Hans Christian, the first of which is our penultimate offering entitled Topaz, this track includes the unusual, but delightful use of Al Jewer on woodwind synthesizers, whilst our last and concluding manifestation entitled Aquamarine, is a vast reservoir of tone and timbre, one that brings our journey to an end in the most luxurious of ways.

This is one of those albums that has been completely worth the wait, each and every composition has been carefully crafted to bring the listener a quality multi instrumental experience, a blissful encounter of great joy, and one must report that so gladly that Precious Stones by Al Jewer & Andy Mitran is an intelligent and well researched release, that finally brings our search for classy new age music with regards to gem stones to an end, this release is the one that makes our voyage through Crystals via music complete, and created in such a beautiful way as well.