Out There, Right Here By Shirley Cason

 

Out There, Right Here

By

Shirley Cason

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

I must admit it was a pleasant repose today for me as I gazed through my musical lens at the latest release from new age keyboardist and composer Shirley Cason and her latest beautiful offering called Out There, Right Here. September has just walked in through the door left open by summer here, and its tonal delights spoke volumes about the cadence of my day thus far.

Shirley has a beautiful flowing style, and after hearing the opening track entitled Voyage to the Heart, I felt even more at ease and calm, the melody and piano performance also reminded me of Al Conti and his 2013 album The Blue Rose.

The second piece snared my attention even further through its soft synth pads and swirling vibrations, this charming musical narrative is called Lift Off to the Unknown, the soothing and tender presentation manifested an uplifting voyage of new age delights; this was turning out to be an album of very special pleasures indeed.

We moved swiftly to the mid-way juncture of the album and a purely blissful composition called Between Stars and Earth, now being a creator of long form electronic ambient music myself, I absolutely loved all 8 minutes and 12 seconds of this track with a passion, its soft pastiche of tone reminded me of the work of US musician Forrest Smithson, in its deep felt, but almost meditative musical voyage, now this is the sort of music I could listen to on repeat for hours.

Treading delicately into the second half of the release we come across another breath taking tale of tone and timbre called Heart of the Cosmos, another long form opus of great quality and style, but here contained within the weave of the song, the complex, but moving chords was a creation that truly touched me, it’s passionate atmospheric magic almost emulated a classically inspired moment not too far removed from the composer Vaughn Williams, in that beautifully fluent, poignant, expressive style, and without doubt one of the highlights from the overall release.

The penultimate track from the album is a short form manifestation that treads the boards of ambience with careful precision and called Cosmic Breath, this elegant slice of ambience then led us into the concluding composition from the album called Homeward Bound, and a more appropriate parting gift of a musical present you will not find, deep keyboard patterns meld with a tasteful and onward tonal manifestation, one that sums up the entire album completely, leaving each and every wise listener with a feeling of complete satisfaction and comfortable joy.

Out There, Right Here by Shirley Cason is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best new age instrumental albums I have had the fortunate pleasure to listen to this year with utter ease, from the very first notes of this compilation of colour and textures, I found myself drawn into a world peace and contentment, this is an album that literally creates a musical sanctuary around the listener, one that I never wanted to leave, and as such I predict with certainty that Out There, Right Here by Shirley Cason has to be huge chart hit for the artist, and is most definitely award worthy.