Album Reviews

Returning Tides

Sleeve Notes by Steve Roberts, SMD.

A career retrospective has long been overdue for David Wright but this is not a treading water exercise given David's steady output and 'Returning Tides' focuses solely on David's solo output and not his collaborative work. However, with at least 15 albums to choose from there is no shortage of material. In fact some will be surprised that 'Returning Tides' is not at least a double album, or was Part 1 left off the title in error?

Nevertheless, this is a well compiled 'best of' and no doubt some fans will quibble over the track listing but the fact is that this serves as an excellent introduction to the canon for the uninitiated  and for the faithfull a timely celebration of David's longevity and creativity. I can understand why a chronological approach wasn't followed given the advances in recording and excellent sound quality of more recent offerings. Not that the early work was not creditworthy, I still hold 'Reflections' as one of my DW favorites, but to start with 'Rysheara' from the excellent 'Dissimilar Views', well represented here, is an intelligent choice given that one of the purposes of a 'best of' is to attract the uninitiated and perhaps those that only have an album or two in their collection. 'Rysheara' as much as any single DW track embodies the key elements of his music, melody, romanticism and cinematic textures. 'Nomad' appears from 'Ocean Watch' followed  by 'Taiga' pulled from 1992's 'Between Realities'.

Arguably, David's most consistent release to date 'Walking With Ghosts' is also, quite rightly, well represented here by 'No More Angels', 'Beyond Paradise' and 'Flame Sky'. It is also good to revisit tracks such as 'Midas' from 'Moments in Time and 'Sioux Falls' as well as the eponymous and apposite 'Returning Tides'. 'Sygyzy' from the acclaimed' 360 'set closes the album. The sound quality is excellent  with all tracks having been 24 bit re mastered and edited especially for this compilation and for this reason alone is well worth the asking price. An exclusive track or two might also have hooked the faithful and given the nature of the exercise David's extended pieces are under represented .(Perhaps this is the 'shorts' and the next volume will be 'the longs' ?) But hey, I'm quibbling now, with a generous running time of 78.49 you are getting value for money and it does exactly what it says on the tin, but it may require another tin or two to finish the job or maybe a boxed set?

Walking with Ghosts

Review by Steve Roberts, Sequencers,SMD.

At last David Wright's follow up to '360' is completed after four years in the making and it has been worth the wait. This is his best album to date by a country mile. It is his most consistent, coherent and mature musical statement where he returns to what he does best, producing emotional electronic music for the heart and the head. A variety of styles fuse together in a totally satisfying blend.

Recognizable David Wright trademarks and the contributions from the variety of guest musicians merge into one organic, seamless soundtrack leaving the listener to experience a personal sonic voyage into their own inner or outer space. The set begins with 'Going Down', very subtle textures and descending and ascending pitches which serve as a prequel to 'A Certain Malaise' which begins with brisk percussion, including tabla effects and a superb cinematic twangy guitar motif vaguely reminiscent of spaghetti western themes, with a bass line to match Morricone at his best.

Before the dust has time to stick in the throat, we are into 'A Road to Nowhere (A Nomadic Tale)' which adds percussion, sequences, a terrific theme and some scorching guitar by Andy Lobban. A brilliant track. This is followed by 'Midnight in the Shadow of Temptation and Delight', a tranquil sonic oasis of expansive synths and in contrast to the previous searing guitar, wonderfully gentle, expressive, echoed fretwork.

This proves to be merely the eye of the storm however, as 'Return of the Nomad' cross fades in even more powerful than before reprising the themes and Lobban's blistering guitar licks electrify the mix. Again, in complete contrast, this is succeeded by 'Beyond Paradise' a superlative 'come down' track. This is 'Beside the Sleepy Lagoon' for the chill out generation. A gentle bass pulse, sea breeze electronics and a classically understated timeless synth motif which comforts and soothes away the collected angst accumulated in the recesses of your brain is occasionally augmented by blissful heavenly strings.


'Night Falls' continues the lilting bass line and motif but adds tasteful saxophone and cymbal effects as the air slowly chills to almost subliminal whispers and echoes. 'Darklands' adds a more ominous tone with insistent, doomy chords, moody strings and piano improvisations around a theme. 'Flame Sky' changes the atmosphere again with expansive synth and guitar but with Cionna Lee's violin adding another dimension to the sound with marimba like effects changing the mood again to create a more dream-like, hypnotic, ethnic atmosphere.

'No More Angels', another meditative, vaguely ominous piece, features more creative and subtle guitar textures with threatening, restless strings, minimalist piano and rare meteorological interference. 'Too Late Now!' is the most abstract piece on the album with vague ethnic references, sweeps and washes which again serve as contrast to the opening section of the 23 minute eponymous opus.'

"Walking with Ghosts: Penumbra'' begins with expressive, haunting classical piano eventually backed with treated voices in counter harmony. 'The second section 'Walking with Ghosts -The Gift' raises the tempo a little with Bill Kibby's guitar gracing the mix before another memorable tune makes an immediate impact upon the listener while the guitar contributions continue to impress throughout.

'Walking with Ghosts - Acheron' slows the pace right down as the piano returns, eventually backed by strings and a more melancholic, downbeat melody emerges cross fading into the finale, 'Walking with Ghosts - C 'est la vie'. Carrying a church like organ into the opening section the sound becomes progressively more expansive as guitar and percussion return until around 2 minutes 46 the track winds down suddenly into an impressionistic, downbeat ending.

Thus ends a very impressive album. On 'Walking With Ghosts' David Wright's influences and the valuable input of all the guest musicians create a diverse but creatively consistent set but above all it is here that the composer's own style and vision emerges triumphantly.

In David Wright's own words 'Ultimately though,'Walking with Ghosts' is a collection of songs; songs that I hope are thought provoking and to which you the listener will attach his or her own emotional interpretation'. This is achieved and much more. Much more! Even if David Wright's output has not appealed to you in the past this is worth your attention and deserves a place in your collection.

Walking with Ghosts - Comments

"THE Fantasy Excursion disc of 2002 - an incredible musical voyage." (Bear, WWSU Radio).

"What a great album! I just can't take it out of my CD player."
(Ken Onstad - Liquid 8 Records).

"An incredible piece of work - it really took me by surprise!"
(Mike Valent - USA).

"Terrific, easily his finest work to date."
(Steve Roberts - Sequences).

"An instrumental gem." (Synth Music Direct).

Walking with Ghosts

Review by Wind and Wire.com

David Wright's extremely ambitious album Walking With Ghosts is more like three or four "mini" albums. For one thing, it's between 74 and 75 minutes long! But what I mean by my comment is how the recording has discernible "movements" as it tracks through its fifteen songs. Besides that analytical statement, I can also testify that this is a brilliant CD as well. Even the songs that I cared for less than others are still clearly superior music. And most of what is here (and at almost 75 minutes, that's a lot of music) is absolutely fantastic. I'm sure I played this thing at least ten to fifteen times before writing this review. Some of the songs on this album are among the best cuts I heard all of last year.

Once you clear the opening short spacey/ambient piece ("Going Down?"), the first "movement" (tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, titled "A Certain Malaise," "Road to Nowhere (A Nomadic Tale)," "Midnight in the Shadow of Temptation and Delight" and "Return of the Nomad") features upbeat, punchy, catchy, rhythm-driven British EM (British EM differs in feel and texture from German/Berlin-school EM in several hard-to-describe but recognizable ways). There is a scattering of slight Germanesque sequencer work, but it's slight and not dominant at all. Later passages in this movement features some of the same musical "themes" from earlier, but slows them down and adds tasty proggish guitar (Andy Lobban and Bill Kibby take turns throughout the album on electric guitar - and sometimes the guitar work is pronounced, so if you dislike stinging electric leads, be forewarned that some of the songs on Walking With Ghosts do rock!). Before track 5 is over, though, we're back into even higher energy propulsive EM than the opening section.

The second movement starts with track 6 ("Beyond Paradise") and here Wright weaves a gently loping and highly melodic web of new age keyboards mixed with subtle EM rhythms. The melodic refrain is handled first by pretty synth strings and later by what sounds like a sampled Theremin! This movement concludes on the next track and thematic elements are played around with for a bit by a sensuous sax sample - but it's not jazzy though and the Theremin does most of the interpreting of the theme.

"Darklands," (track 8) as you might expect from its title, takes the album into darker territory. Minor tonalities, doses of melancholy, subdued soaring electric guitar leads and mournful echoed piano all contribute to a bleak yet beautiful slice of ambient/EM/new age music. This "movement" is less distinct than what has come before; in fact, Wright's use of repeated refrains and motifs surfaces less frequently from here on until track 12. "No More Angels" (track 10) is highlighted by Andy Lobban's sterling guitar work. This song is much more guitar-oriented than most of the others on the CD. Sad-sounding prog-rockish guitar mixes with spacey keyboards, but once again Wright finds a way to always interject a sense of beauty even when things are mournful. The piece gets fairly energetic at times during the song's seven-plus minutes, but nothing frenetic or too loud.

The last four tracks are a suite of sorts, all titled "Walking with Ghosts," followed by a sub-title ("Penumbra," "The Gift," "Acheron," and "C'est la vie"). As a thematic suite, it's magnificent. The music has an almost neo-classical feel as it begins with piano and a very subtle undercurrent of keyboards that slowly grows to include lush strings. The repeating motif reminded me somewhat of Philip Glass at times. The next track has the same "feel" but ramps it all up by adding stinging electric guitar leads and pulsing synths/synth-beats. Drama is underscored and bold-faced by Wright's great use of synth string sections playing short bowed chords. The third song slows down and brings spacey synth effects into play against the muted guitar work, along with a backdrop of thunder and falling rain. Piano eventually comes to the forefront as the cut once again moves into somber and melancholic soundscape territory. As this song transitions to the last cut, broad sweeping strings (bowed and plucked) impart a strong classical texture, which only increases with a beautiful oboe sample. Massive-sounding cathedral-style organ takes over the melodic refrain in a blaze of dramatic thunder, along with analog-synth notes, church organ, pulsing EM beats, piano and who knows what else, all repeating the musical motif that was introduced back in the first track of the suite. Before the end, though, things subside into a quiet stillness before a final mini-crescendo.

I normally refrain from listing so much specific detail about an album's music in my reviews these days, but a work as artistically complex and emotionally satisfying as Walking with Ghosts deserves the "full treatment," as it were. Wright's liner notes infer that he put his whole heart and soul into this recording, drawing on his many musical influences and recording parts of it all over the world from 1998 to 2002. I can believe it.

This album is an amazing feat of both technical wizardry (the recording sounds awesome on headphones) and artistic soul-baring. Seldom does overt electronic music reflect this level of genuine emotion. Veering from sincerely powerful to joyously affirming to somberly tragic, yet beautifully haunting throughout, Walking with Ghosts is a landmark piece of work. Highly recommended.

Ocean Watch

Review by Graham Getty, SMD

From 1992/93, the pattern of tracks is similar in construction to that of the previous album – several lengthy epics and a few shorter pieces – but, musically, the album reveals a maturity that is quite surprising, bearing in mind the time that has passed and the high standards set previously. The 8 tracks have much more life than the previous two – This music seems to leap out at you! The classical feel is supplemented, as opposed to replaced, by a vibrant, almost European sea of rhythms and melodies, while the feel and construction that makes DW music so unique and hypnotic is still present.

In a way, even though the comparison is not being made on a “sound-alike” basis, this somehow has much more of a cosmic Vangelis feel running through it, with that sense of dynamics, strength and beauty working in perfect harmony, so that even the space music seems melodic, and nothing ever stands still. The final track ‘Beyond The Airwaves # 2’ is a bit of an epic! Lasting nearly twenty-eight minutes, it sustains every last one of them, starting with an ocean of string-synths before going on into more far-eastern realms and then a mix of haunting electronic generated effects. From there it enters a gorgeous flowing string synth passage that moves onto darker, slightly hostile cosmic territories, before opening out onto sunnier, but still spacey plains. From there it gathers all the synth clouds together to open up a clearer sky, and then layers between full-sounding strings and soothing, quiet space music passages. Finally a rippling piano motif leads us into a passage of the more heart-warming style of cosmic music, and the piece slowly flows slowly on to its conclusion. A very, very good album!

Continuum

Review by ambientvisions.com

David Wright is a British composer of electronic music.  He has many CDs to his credit, among the better know are Walking with Ghosts and ThreeSixZero. 

Continuum was released in June of 2004.  The idea of the CD was to contrast dark against light in alternating works.  This is achieved expertly here and presents the listener with some very innovative electronic soundscapes. The works are composed on various makes of keyboards and synthesizers, which dominate the work.  There are voice and guitar samplings.  The work is “space music”, but it is so much more. There are 5 tracks with a total playing time of over 77 minutes.   

The first track Dark Matter is one of the “dark” compositions, very spacey, with sampled voice and guitar.  It is a brooding selection, with the voice samplings giving it a soulful cry.  There is an up beat mixed into this piece which compliments and provides lift so the piece does not become depressing.  There is a changeover about three quarters of the way through that gives a momentary pause for reflection, and the piece then continues as before.  Very expertly composed, this is an interesting work that I found was worth repeating to appreciate the nuances offered by the artist. 

The second track Continuum, is the title work and is one of the “lighter” compositions.  It starts with a very “spacey” opening, breaking out into a light beat and a melody that is more airy than the previous work.   The synth space soundscape is very defined here, but it is gentle, and lifts the listener, rather than projecting the listener into space.  A very subtle and delightful composition, worthy of the title track. 

Bridge of Souls returns to the brooding, darker mood of the work.  It is filled with shadows, the beat is very subtle, and the sound suggests dark space.  There are suggestions of melody that must be carefully listened for and will surprise the listener.   An interesting composition, to say the least, and one that will also bear repeating. 

We return to the light with Island of Flight with a more pronounced beat, samplings of voices suggesting a “space center” and a melody that is more uplifting and flows from soft and isolated to a more pronounced and backfilled work that is almost “orchestrated”.  A very lovely work that is expertly assembled. 

The final composition Cassini is the longest work on the CD, but is also the lightest and the most delightful.  It first appears to be a continuation of Island of Flight at times, recalling the “space center” voices, but it forms its own identity, tying in but remaining separate.  It has a dancing base line, complimented with light keyboard work that floats over the well defined beat.  There are samplings of other voices as well, which blend into the work and will surprise the listener.   It breaks from itself occasionally, offering “contemplative moments” of a different mood, but it then reassembles to its original form.  While still spacey, it provides lovely melodies and moments that bring this CD to a winning finish.   

This CD was an enjoyable listening experience for me which begged repeating.  The second listen through brought out the complexities of the work which were standing behind the surface waiting to be noticed.   The compositions are beautiful, and do offer the listener a challenge, but can be taken at face value and still very much enjoyed. I have to add that the cover art of this CD and the artwork inside the booklet are also worth looking at.  The space conceptions are breathtaking, combined with the exceptional images.  This brings the entire package into focus and is a very exceptional presentation. 

If you are a fan of David Wright, or enjoy space music and are looking for something that is fulfilling as well as delightful to listen to, this CD is exactly what you are looking for.  I do recommend this as an essential addition to your collection.

Blue - Hypnosis Concert

Review by BEAR - Ambient Visions

Once again a superlative work that contains incredible ambient information that only enhances the atmosphere created in this remarkable live recording.  Suffice to say that the entire experience is both enlightening and immensely enjoyable and that commentary on the individual tracks would serve no purpose other than to report on an incredible experience out of context.  Once again a disc that would stand on it's own and only enhances the complete package concept of presenting a productive musical period that would have otherwise gone unheard.  "This box set puts that right and "fills the gaps".

Very highly recommended as an essential addition to any space music fans library of listening material. Please remember that there are only 2000 of these sets released.  Fair warning as I cannot imagine that they will last very long. Full Review click here.

Dissimilar Views 2 - The Korce Project

Review by Steve Roberts, SMD.

The Korce Project originated in 1994 as a charity project in conjunction with The Body Shop and David Wright recorded an album's worth of material after 'Moments in Time' which was designed to be sold as a fund raising effort for the desperately poor children in Albania. The music was intended to reflect the experiences of a group of volunteers working with the children and was originally intended to feature alongside the poetry of Keith Bromley, the project originator, and be available from The Body Shop and selected outlets.

Unfortunately, through no fault of the composer, the project fell through but a limited edition music cassette (AD8MC Ltd. Edition) was circulated. I was fortunate to get a copy and, in my view, the material was at least as good as other material from this period and an interesting progression from 'Moments in Time'. The cassette because of its limited availability became quite collectable and also contained the first Fox/Wright collaboration, 'Meeting at Trevalyn'. Some of the music from the Korce Project appeared on 'Dissimilar Views' in different versions (AD9CD) but new material was also included most notably the extended music which comprised the title piece. Hence this double CD set which includes 'Dissimilar Views', the main Korce Project suite in its entirety with 14 minutes of additional music, new extended, and alternative versions and other unreleased material digitally re mastered.

Reassessing 'Dissimilar Views' it is clear that it represented a change of direction for David Wright a transition into different directions although retaining key elements from the early period romanticism. Sequences play an important role on tracks such as the longer version of 'Albania Part1' and 'Turning Tides' and the 2 versions of the excellent 'Rysheara' which remains a David Wright classic. 'Korce' with its restless, strident theme and rock percussion is a fine addition to the repertoire and 'Room of Dolphins' offers a perfectly chilled oasis of tranquility with some fine arpeggios and piano work. 'Benny's Theme' tugs at the heart strings with subtle instrumental work and delicate textures, whilst 'Embarou Bay' offers a more optimistic travelogue. The set concludes with 'Returning Tides' clocking in at just under the 10 minute mark it typifies the high quality of the unreleased material throughout.

This commendable release shows how prolific David Wright's output was at this time. Rest assured if you are unfamiliar with the Korce material and a fan of David Wright in general and 'Dissimilar Views' in particular this is a fine collection and fills a gap in the composer's musical curriculum vitae.