Between Shadow and Light
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley May 25, 2016
Artist – Neil Patton
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www.neilpatton.net
Fingers dance lightly across the keys. Emotion and mood slowly morph into being to commence a journey of healing and love, orchestrated by the pure voice of piano.
Each of the tracks has been created as a single, yet vital component of the healing process we all have to face and learn to accept, as a segment of our own personal journey.
Beautiful and evocative, the music can, as always, be enjoyed simply as delightful elegant piano, touching as you will allow, to be enjoyed at any time and in any place.
Having played this album several times over while undertaking the task of creating some specialist garments, the mood created is one of peace and tranquillity; there but not interfering with the thought process, touching the deeper chords of the psyche to bring with it a sense of quiet reflection and clearer thought patterns.
Perhaps not what was intended when the pieces were being composed, but such is the journey music will, and more often than not, can take you. Each person will find what it is that is required in each piece. Places unchartered, moods and feeling to be softened, hope to be offered and received, such is the true power of each composition.
Patton has, as many have, faced the daunting task of recovery from a serious arm injury which held the real possibility of ending his career at the piano. That he has felt the anxiety, hope, despair, the acceptance of challenge, renewed hope then recovery, comes through in the various tracks.
The range of music style encompasses the gentle, reflective new age, through to light classical with an often unexpected range of variations in style to be discovered and enjoyed.
Many of the pieces have been written in tribute to a person or situation that is or has faced suffering and healing; his parents, a friend’s dog called Riley, the long, heartbreaking goodbye associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
He has also recognised the place in all our lives when, in that space between the ‘shadow and the light’, that nocturnal time before the sun rises or sets on the day, is the time when we confront our angst, our sadness, our suffering and search for some healing and love to get us through the day ahead, or the night yet to come.
Beautiful in its thoughtful creation and structure this contemporary album of piano will appeal time and time again.