When German composer, pianist and multi-instrumentalist Bernward Koch began his journey as a new age artist with his debut album Flowing in the relatively peaceful world of 1989, he could scarcely have imagined just how much more essential his lovely, beautifully straightforward, unpretentious and above all else, CALMING pieces would become as history began throwing humanity more challenging natural and sociopolitical curveballs over the intervening decades.
Case in point, the last time I had the privilege to review a one of his recordings, it was 2020, and his lovely album Becoming offered some sweet solace in the early months of the pandemic – which of course he could never have foreseen when he was recording it in the months prior. But that’s how magical, mystical music and the artists that create them work. They’re so in touch with the divinity of the universe that allows them to create that there’s always beauty ready to unfold and appreciate just as we need it.
On the career front between that wonderful project and his latest, the perfectly titled Calming Colors, Koch in 2022 released Tree Tales, the first album on his newly founded label Tree Tales Records, with international distribution by California based A-Train Entertainment. That same year, the multi-talented artist produced an exclusive piece of music for a new research project of the Els for Autism Foundation at the Els Center of Excellence in Jupiter, FL. The content preparation was created in collaboration with the Executive Director of Els, Dr. Marlene Sotelo. The piece “Rising Soul” was created specifically to help autistic people.
These fresh opportunities are all in addition to some of Koch’s other accolades and achievements, including having Weber State University in Ogden UT recommending his music as anti-stress and many airlines around the world playing selections from his catalog to calm the nerves of passengers who have a fear of flying.
Marking Koch’s 17th album in 35 years, Calming Colors is comprised mostly of image-rich two word titles that seem designed to spark our imaginations as we immerse in and feel its magnificent 45 minutes of soothing and graceful melodic waves of piano and ambience. From the moment he charms us with the spacious wonder of the opener “Distant Bell,” something takes hold and it feels like we, the blessed listeners, can exhale, close our eyes and enjoy the sonic soul massage, perhaps imagining what that bell would look like. Koch taps into our innate connection with the lushness and beauty of nature on the tenderly caressing “Meadow Dreams” and moody, reflective “Sunny Fields” before charming the inner kids in all of us with his wonderfully softhearted and understated “Children’s Lullaby.”
Koch’s intimate, two-word title invitations also include a refreshing “Windy Walk,” the anthemic, life affirming slow dance “Forever Green,” a delightful, free-flowing “Little Daydream,” the darker though still hauntingly seductive “Autumn Light,” the wondrous escape from the world towards an immersive “Sweet Solitude” and the ultimate exploration of an array of truly “Calming Colors” that the album title promises.
The two glorious exceptions to the “two word title” rule on Calming Colors are the second track, the hymnlike, classical flavored meditation “Solemnly” and the grand finale “Walk on the Beach,” which includes a hypnotic rhythm track and is as lighthearted, spritely and sun-splashed (via high notes on the piano) as the title implies. Though this piece has a bit more percussive movement in it, the imagery its title invokes makes it as refreshing, relaxing and invigorating as any of the other songs and their thematic imagery. Koch is as in command of his massaging artistry as ever, and like so many of his works over the years, truly meets this anxious moment in history.
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