"Sweet, gentle melodies. Welch promises "Night Music" and truly delivers. You will be thankful for the peace and melodic mastery of his musical vision."
-Bill Fisher, Victory Music Review
"This is a damn good album. Inspired by the birth of [+]"Sweet, gentle melodies. Welch promises "Night Music" and truly delivers. You will be thankful for the peace and melodic mastery of his musical vision."
-Bill Fisher, Victory Music Review
"This is a damn good album. Inspired by the birth of Chris's child, Night Music is a collection of gentle lullabies and nocturnes that never crosses over into pretentiousness or saccharine territory. Instead, the gentle melodies of each track offer sincere gentility, abundant warmth, and an overall sense of comfort and well being. Yet, the musical abilities of Chris, as well as his accompanists (David Pascal on bass, Evan Buehler on vibraphone, Chris Monroe on shaker and cabasa, Michael Gotz on steel string guitar, and Greg Fulton on nylon string guitar) elevate these uncluttered simple songs way above their modest aims.
Some tracks feature just Chris on piano, while others have one or more other musicians assisting him. As on Songs Without Words, Chris is quite adept at knowing which electronic keyboards work best in any given setting, although piano predominates throughout the CD. The mix, by the way, particularly when there is vibraphone, is wonderfully balanced.
The mood of these pieces is, of course, laid-back and (almost always) purposely placid. However, there is variety of style here, with trace elements of light jazz and subtle shadings of neo-classical, too, as well as plenty of romantic new age music touches here and there. The tracks don't have titles, per se, instead being identified by the type of music (e.g. Prelude, Nocturne, Interlude) and numbered (#1, #4 in E Major, etc.). In some ways, that's perfect, because it eliminates the sometimes fallen-into trap of an artist penning cliché or trite names for songs that have emotional resonance.
With fourteen selections on the CD, I'm hard-pressed to choose my favorites. But since I'm partial to vibes, I'd say that "Lullaby #2 in D Major" and "Lullaby #4 in E Major" are among them. I also like the gently swaying sensuality of "Bossa Nova Lullaby in Db" and the plaintive "Nocturne in C Minor" graced by a mournful nylon string guitar. The solo piano pieces and the ones featuring an accompanist are all wonderful and should fit in well with late night reading or conversation when ambient music is no
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