James Bowden - New Horizons

Published Monday 13th August 2007
James Bowden - New Horizons
James Bowden - New Horizons

STYLE: Ambient/Meditational
RATING 6 6 6 6 6 6
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 29098-12914
LABEL: Independent
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 2
RRP: £10.00

Reviewed by Paul Poulton

What is lurking in the depths of this double disc'd package with el cheapo artwork is not half bad, in fact there are times when it is most pleasant on the ear. Brit James Bowden uses mostly piano-based lines that move neatly in various, if unexciting, directions, but satisfying none the less. It's mostly two lines of music, melody and chords, the feel sometimes drifts into shades of 16th century, though by and large the feel is modern. Most of the tunes are played adagio to andante (slow and a bit quicker), James enjoys typical quaver based arpeggios, which so many piano players rely on to get them through tunes. I'm not so keen on them myself - why fill up bars with spam notes? Music needs to breathe, which isn't easy when there's clutter around. There are, however, interesting ideas going on in most of the tracks, none of which have names, just Track 1, Track 2, etc. Differing samples help bring some variation to the 21 tunes. The strings work particularly well and there are times when the progressions go just where you want them to go which certainly helps in making the CD an enjoyable auditory experience.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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Reader Comments

Posted by Sarah Packer in Dudley @ 16:45 on Jan 5 2009

The writer of this article has done his utmost to review the album in a seemingly balanced and logical way and for that I bless him, but please let me say that there is a quality to this album that words can not describe. It has the Shalom presence and love of Christ oozing out of it and has come out of a place of very deep communion with God. Don't go without sampling it's depths.



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