Channeling Myself By Carl Lord

 

Channeling Myself

By

Carl Lord

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

Carl Lord is known to me as one of the finest ambient music artists around in this modern age, the one thing as musicians we share is the powerful influence of a true master in Brian Eno, here though Lord takes a different look at musical ambience by creating a 12 track solo piano album, one that has all the hallmarks of the good old days of piano based ambient reveries, with a few surprises in for good measure too, on the release Channeling Myself.

We start our journey of plenty with the track River Road Reflections, a fluent narrative indeed, rivers themselves are a wonderful well of inspiration, roads doubly so, this dualistic presentation is as uplifting as an early spring morning, one that looks back over its shoulder whilst traveling, in a quite beautiful opening creation.

Thoroughbred is another crafted sense of tone and timbre, a strong elevation of vibrancy and intensity can be found here, with a middle segment melody that is both bright and moving, this is followed by the reflective nuances of Skipping Rocks, a piece that pauses to connect and reconnect over and again.

The downward drop into a minor chord made this track one of my personal favourites from the release and called A Sense of You, with subtle hints of Lanz and Winston, here is a slice of solo piano that is both haunting and ambient all at the same time, and trust me that takes a lot to manifest those qualities in a track.

Well as I write we’re supposed to be in the middle of autumn here in Cyprus, but across the rest of the western world leaves fall, so it’s time for an Autumn Sonnet, for me this was a truly classy piece, another favourite indeed, illustrating beauty in decay, the sonnet finds grace in the inevitable decline, portraying autumn as a moment of reflection and quiet splendour.

There ae some more light-hearted reveries to, like the jazzy, Jazz Me When I'm Blue, and the pristine clarity of the haunting offering called Grace, proving this album has a lock box full of musical dynamics and intelligent composing to enjoy, we can emphasise this by the power of the next determined offering called Pilgrimage, a song played with a grit and an intent to succeed, proving this album has a little something for everyone tucked inside.

One of my favourite artistic subjects is clouds, you know that theatre in the sky that everyone takes for granted, and here on Cloud Cover we laminate in the enclosure of perhaps a layer of stratus clouds, ever hanging low, blocking the sun’s rays and thus happiness, this has to be one of the most sombre pieces from the album, but one very redolent of the subject matter.

Remnant is a slice of harmonic ambience that is utterly beautiful, and at times reminds me of when Eno met Budd and magic was created, the penultimate offering is called Hold Me, it has a warmth about its musical persona that I adored, and lead us nicely into our concluding offering entitled Sincerely Yours, a heartfelt and more honest conclusion to an album you will not find, and as such the perfect ending to one of the finest ambient solo piano albums I have heard for many a year.

Channeling Myself by Carl Lord is an introspective look at the artists muse and 12 tracks of delicious ambience flow from the piano of the composer. Here is an album of an open heart and an honest creator, one who flourishes on this release with some of the most sensitive creations around, and should be applauded for it; surely a huge chart position must be on offer for Carl Lord with Channeling Myself.