Into The Light By Kimberly Haynes

 

Into The Light

By

Kimberly Haynes

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

Kimberly Haynes has created something here that sits in that increasingly rare space where music isn't simply entertainment, or even expression, but a form of emotional survival. This is an album born from loss, but crucially, it isn't consumed by loss. Haynes understands something many artists struggle to articulate: grief isn't a destination, it's a landscape you learn to walk through and that distinction gives Into The Light its extraordinary power. For context sake, it’s a landscape I have walked through as well, and it’s a realm where the mists of memory swirl around in an infinite regress, but when all is said and done time becomes your best friend and your ally.

The opening offering reminds me greatly of early Enya, but there is more depth and warmth to the offering, Grant Us Peace immediately establishes the emotional vocabulary. There is no grandstanding here. Haynes sings with the kind of restraint that comes from having lived the words rather than merely written them. The arrangement surrounds her with spacious textures, allowing the vocal to remain the emotional centre. Haynes creates a space where the listener can step away from the noise of everyday life and simply breathe. There is tenderness here, but also a quiet strength, the vocal performance carries an emotional honesty that never needs to shout to be heard.

From the calming references and soothing mantra of the opening offering we move to Narrow Bridge. Note the brilliant trumpet of Jeff Oster here; it immediately adds a completely moving texture to the lyrics from the Baal Shem Tov. There is something wonderfully evocative about this composition, a feeling of taking each step carefully while knowing that the journey itself is part of the destination, as it is with the following piece entitled I Am My Prayer, a piece that contains the voice of her deceased husband Brian, I must admit it took me five listens before I could get through this one, it is easily the most emotional track I have ever heard, and a tip of the hat to the cello & string arrangement by the commanding Hans Christian as well.

At the midway juncture we find the title track of the album and of course I am referring to Into The Light. Please listen to the sheer raw power and sensitivity of the vocals of Haynes in this piece it is extraordinary. There is a wonderful sense of release within the arrangement, a musical opening of the curtains after a long period of darkness. The title becomes more than a phrase; it becomes the destination of the entire journey, it is surely one of the album's defining moments.

A pop classic follows with the legendary The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Haynes gives the piece a fresh emotional identity, and the presence of family within the performance adds another beautiful layer to the story being told, then to one of my personal favourites from the album entitled The Enchantment. There is something about this that reminds me of Lucinda Drayton of Bliss, regardless there is a lush Celtic motif here that is utterly splendid and undeniable.

The penultimate offering from the album is the delicate pastiche of Moola Mantra, featuring the guitars of Vito Gregoli and Bansuri of Manose Singh alongside the Kora of Youssoupha Sidibe. The mantra becomes a pulse, the instrumentation becomes atmosphere, and the whole composition seems to wash over the listener rather than simply play in front of them.

The concluding narrative is entitled Cielito Lindo. There is warmth here, but also a sense of completion. After everything we have travelled through, the questions, the memories, the spirituality, the sadness and the emergence into something brighter, Haynes leaves us with music that feels human, affectionate and deeply alive, and completes one of the most moving and powerful albums in the history of the genre. For me this has to be one that any musical aficionado must have in their collections, and called Into The Light by Kimberly Haynes.