Balance By Paul Avgerinos

 

Balance

By

Paul Avgerinos

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

The legend that is Paul Avgerinos has recently been creating some of the most poignant and delightfully serene music of his career ever with his Beloved album released last year, and now this quite amazing new ambient offering entitled Balance, Paul has probably created one of the best ambient new age styled collections of keyboard synth magic for decades with this release, climaxing even Llewellyn’s Journey to the Temple from the start of the century.

The album itself is an 11 track release filled with perfect ambient tones and structures that seem to reform and reimagine themselves as they go, starting with the opener Poise. This was released as a single this year, and is a delightfully delicate opening offering, one that you could leave on repeat for an age and never even notice; this is ambient music at its apex.

Repose, another former single is next and has a wonderfully emotional lilt in its arrangement, but one that is layered and structured in a way that allows the listener to feel, yet not get overwhelmed, reminding me at times of artists like Liquid Mind, whilst the spacious and timeless reverie of tracks like The Comfort of Silence, also another single, breathe a breath of comfort into our realms, and allows the listener to float on a bed of tonal cloud structures.

The next composition called Balance is another more meditative arrangement, this long form swirling synth and keyboard narratives takes the listener on an amazing journey, whilst the piece The Eternal Now manifests a cloud kingdom of a musical vista, a vast realm of spacious ambience with an underpinned tone of mystery and imagination built into the weave.

There can be no doubt that this is an album that is utterly timeless and transcendent, it manifests a spacious environment and allows the listener a sanctuary of sound to just drift within, like the tracks Stream of Stillness, utilising a soft recording of a stream trickling and gentle keyboards, whilst the piece Mindfulness Rising is that very composition of meditative genius that you have been seeking for so long, but yet to find, with reference to the title one could easily see it being used in a mindfulness meditation.

The longest piece from the release is the most galactic Zero Gravity, at well over 10 minutes, it sounds like one of the tracks from my forthcoming album, but more space orientated and dreamy. Paul’s careful progression of this composition is a delight to listen to and this piece alone would make a superb moment of stillness for one to manifest a halcyon moment with.

The more melodic Clear Sky Mind is up next as we tread into the deeper waters of the release, this one is a place of synth mastery, one could imagine waking up to a glorious sunrise in nature to this ambient slice of genius, and reminds me in texture of the more nature based tracks from UK synth master Kevin Kendle.

We move to the penultimate offering Crystal Reflections, a more tender new age styled reverie; this is a charming and soothing musical creation, so delicate in its approach and the concluding tale called Of One Being, here Paul explores the wide realms of sonic sound and calmness and produces the most epic final piece an album one could ever wish for, the flowing keyboards and synths are like watching a summer tide lazily come and go upon the shoreline, and is simply the best way with which to leave the album.

Balance by Paul Avgerinos is an album that I will personally invest a lot of my personal reflection and time into, he holds the ambient line firm throughout the album, and the result is one of the finest ambient new age meditative releases of the century so far, it is that good and deserves each and every plaudit it gets. I can see a very high chart position, and possibly awards on the horizon for, Balance by Paul Avgerinos.