Feels Like Happiness By David Wohl

 

Feels Like Happiness

By

David Wohl

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

The familiarity of David’s performances takes me back over the years to other new age pianists like Winston, Lanz and others, here David Wohl is back with another absolutely jam packed collection of heart-warming tunes and melodies, and this time around the release is entitled Feels Like Happiness something I think most of us really need right now.

This vast 15 track library of songs is an ocean of tone and timbre worth exploring, from the lyrical Irish Memory, a short form narrative inspired by perhaps a lineage to the island of green and rolling hillsides, and then on to what would turn out to be my favourite track from the album called Nearly Autumn, this was multi-layered, with hints and moods of mystery and reflection painted sonically within, the melody was one of the best I have heard for decades and the performance double so, with touches of power and sensitivity both perfectly matched.

The cheer filled Feels Like Happiness is up next, here we have classic new age piano that flows from the hands of the pianist like an early spring rainfall, pouring through mountain rocks, fresh and ever abundant. Whilst Yellow Roses is a horse of a totally different musical colour, naturally flowing, but technically brilliant and effortless in its energies, submitting a technique to be both admired and enjoyed.

Clare Island Sunrise takes us back to Ireland, for those of you who unaware of its location, County Clare is located in the province of Munster in the Southern part of Ireland, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west. This attractive Celtic tale is woven with both reverences to the past and fluent textures, in what is a stunning piano presentation.

Another of my personal favourites is up next and called Awakening Path, there is something quite mindful about this track that seems to create a lush symbiosis of past and present within the weave of the overall composition, its slow start is highlighted by an increase of purpose and an ever onward style to embrace the future, a clever track minded.

Call Me From Amsterdam is a delicate yet wonderfully romantic ballad, it’s akin to a musical segment during a movie perhaps, most certainly it might remind the listener of a song that they have heard from a TV show, there is something quite expressive about this track in the same way with which Billy Joel was on his hit single Leningrad.

When we reach the half way juncture we are gifted a track called Freedom River, I had to listen to this particular piece three times before I felt I understood its tale, and even then it might well be different for each listener, for me it was a track to pause and reflect on, perhaps to drift gently down the stream of life too, going with the current instead of against the flow, in a narrative that felt more like an old hymn of hope.

Morning Light is one of those upscale tracks that you cannot help but like, it’s one of those ease like Sunday morning pieces you can listen to whilst getting your day going.  This moves us to a glorious voyage of solo piano called Mountain Lake Aire, this is another beautiful offering, one so carefully created and respectfully played by the artist, if David could play with colours, then this pastiche of tone and timbre would be the most colourful crayon in the box.

The next offerings slow build and insightful context captured my imagination and called Kiss of the Moon. It would be easy for me to wax lyrically about the subject matter being reflected through the music, which of course it is, but it is much more than that, this somewhat simple progression is the most ambient piece from the release, and for Wohl to hold back like this was even more impressive.

And if You Should Ask reminded me of my days as a global traveller, whilst one airport from another is pretty much the same, I remember the last time I ever went to the states (2010) and listened to a pianist in the bar playing this style of composition in the lounge at Atlanta Hartsfield, full flowing, easy on the ears and mind, and just a sweet captivating lyrical tune to ease you into your environment of choice.

On the piece Snowmelt we have a drifting tonal delight that seems to flutter and disappear with the chilled winter wind of late February, then at the half way juncture of the piece, it feels like spring has arrived with its more full flowing scale and uplifting narrative that comes forth from Wohl’s piano.

We conclude the album with a couple of short form tales, the first called Was That Us? A soft yet palpable arrangement that has some delicious fuller and louder segments along with the more sustained base of the piece, and finally our last tale from the piano of David Wohl can be told and entitled Hotline Bling, this could easily be adapted for a song and in the current climate would probably do well as a pop song, however under these circumstances it is simply a crafted way indeed to leave the project.

Feels Like Happiness by David Wohl is a truly classy album of 15 superior solo piano tracks, Wohl’s mastery is the ability to paint tonal pictures with every arrangement on this album, and the prospective listener can be assured that this happens with ease on one of the best solo piano albums I have heard this year called Feels Like Happiness by David Wohl.