Album Review: Evensong by Kevin Keller

Review by Candice Michelle

New York-based composer Kevin Keller continues to dazzle and amaze with his ever-evolving yet uniquely signature style of award-winning music that combines ambient and electronica with cinematic and classical styles. Comprised of eight enchantingly beautiful pieces all named (and numbered 1-8) after the album’s title, Evensong, Keller’s latest masterpiece is no exception in his nearly three-decade recording career. What makes Evensong especially remarkable among this prolific artist’s repertoire is Keller’s thematic inspiration for this album – the transcendent and timeless music of Hildegard of Bingen. Born circa 1908, Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, herbalist, mystic, and philosopher whose divine musical works and writings have inspired countless artists, composers and creative thinkers across centuries.

On Evensong, Keller enlists four soprano singers (Danya Katok, Elisa Singer Strom, Katherine Wessinger, and Wendy Baker) who provide mesmerizing chants composed by Bingen on tracks 1, 3, 4, and 7 in addition to ethereal vocal textures throughout the album. Classical strings by Sarah Zun (violin), Angela Pickett (viola) and Laura Metcalf (cello) are also woven into Keller’s ambient neoclassical soundscapes, which seemingly transcend place and time with their flawless fusion of medieval and modern musical motifs. Illuminated by floating, shimmering and lightly pulsating electronic sequences that are variably accented by stringed instruments, bell tones, and encircling pipe organ figures throughout, the album’s haunting yet heavenly atmospheres evoke sacred and cosmic imagery, like that of a vaulted cathedral ceiling opening to reveal the majestic milky way.

Joining the ranks among other top-notch Bingen-inspired ambient/neoclassical albums like Vision by Richard Souther and Lux Vivens by Jocelyn Montgomery & David Lynch, Kevin Keller’s Evensong is one of the most magnificent albums I’ve heard in recent years and an absolute must-have for fans of this genre!  

~Candice Michelle for Journeyscapes 

For more information please visit the artist's website. Evensong is also available at Bandcamp and more!

Album Review: Lonely Satellite by Lena Natalia

Lena Natalia is a Chicago-based pianist and composer who initially captured my attention a couple of years ago with her second album entitled Rendezvous in Paris (and follow-up to her debut release, Sundays in Paris). What especially drew me to Lena’s music was her unique brand of ambient-piano and classical minimalism that intriguingly sets her apart from a plethora of comparatively more “contemporary” and “new age” defined piano albums that I’ve heard over the past few years. Comprised of 15 compositions spanning 42 minutes – with all but one piece clocking in at under 4 minutes – Lena’s latest album titled Lonely Satellite further expounds on the subtle direction of last year’s release, Almost Home, with its uniquely processed effects applied to her piano. Utterly transforming Lena's otherwise solo instrumental pieces into duskily atmospheric, multi-tonal soundscapes, I find her compositions deeply affecting and often wistful with an air of reminiscent longing.

From the opening piece, “Ballerina at Night”, we’re met with an instantly memorable melody and Lena’s now-familiar style of interlocking piano figures. One of my favorites, “Munich Train 7H04”, is a shining example of Lena’s ability to imbue her compositions with a sense of haunting nostalgia. Here, as with other pieces, she achieves that by applying an echoing, reverberating effect and underlying rhythmic pulse. On “Lonely Satellite”, mellifluously cascading piano notes seemingly fall all around like raindrops onto an encircling puddle of water – making this an exemplary classical ambient piece of supreme beauty and coy elegance.

Overall keeping in line with a more minimalistic approach, Lena’s music isn’t noted by particularly overt crescendos or musical peaks throughout. Rather, her generally understated yet undeniably intricate compositions tend to beguilingly shimmer like filtered light beneath a watery surface. A musical genius in the realm of modern piano music, I expect Lena Natalia’s star will continue to rise ever-further in its sky! ~Candice Michelle

For more information please visit the artist's website. This album is also available at Amazon, Bandcamp and other retail & streaming platforms.

Artist Spotlight: An Interview with Lena Natalia

We’re excited to present an audio interview with Chicago-based composer Lena Natalia. Possessing a signature sound and style that could be described as ‘minimalist classical meets ambient piano’, she released her fifth album last year titled Lonely Satellite, which was named one of the top 25 albums of 2018 on Journeyscapes. In this segment, we’ll learn more about Lena Natalia, as well as her inspiration for Lonely Satellite. So please tune-in for a casual yet insightful conversation about music, the moon, and her muse!