After The Rain
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley October 3, 2018
Artist – Neil Tatar
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https://neiltatar.com
Glorious, gorgeous and a real treat, this new album, After the Rain from Neil Tatar combines the best of styles to create an album which will be listened to time and time again; an album which is none other than pure, sensuous, magic from beginning to end.
Talented and expressive Tatar combines his blues, jazz, roots blend with a wonderful World music influence to create a contemporary style that is truly his own.
The first listen to this album was while driving through a remote landscape in the Arkaroola Ranges; a majestic, dry and ancient landscape located far inland from the coast of South Australia; an ancient seabed, that allows the imagination to move and flow, to create what may have been as the seas of what was once Gondwanaland, slowly receded to allow the land to be born once again.
Fitting perfectly into the timeless and majestic landscape that stretches a far as the eye can, the songs were absolute perfection, as if they had been created for that particular time and place.
Having listened to this gently sensuous work several times since, the beauty and magic holds fresh and true, as can be expected from a musician with his background of composition on both guitar and piano.
When reading the line-up of artists working with Neil Tatar on this album it is truly a line up from the top selection of musicians well respected and awarded within the contemporary New Age, World music genre.
Charlie Bisharat weaves his magic on violin over several of the tracks, Gentle Steps, When I Was Young and Welcome Home amongst others. Jeff Oster adds flugelhorn to Reflections as well as Welcome Home. Jeff Haynes adds percussion and vocals on Sunset creating a delicious change of mood. Eugene Friesen, on cello, joins Bisharat and Tatar on Rush Pond. Premik Russel Tubbs joins with Soprano Sax on When I was Young and ewi on the hauntingly hypnotic Nightwalk. Musician and producer Will Ackerman adds his guitar and rain stick to the mix.
After the Rain, the title track is a true team effort as it has will Ackerman on guitar, Jill Hayley on English Horn, Levin on NS Bass, Haynes on percussion and Noah Wilding on Vocal, where he is joined by Tatars’ wife Lini, to create a track which perfectly depicts the title; a song which allows the listener to visualise the earth at peace after the rain, the gentle ambience there to be seen and enjoyed by all.
Alto Sax introduces the final, and a most enjoyably different track, in Sidewalk Jam, a snazzy little blues style piece creating the perfect ending to a wonderfully relaxed and alluring collection of songs created to be enjoyed. After The Rain has that something special that reaches out to touch the very heart and soul with gentle softness. This is an album that is something very, very special indeed!