Dan Chadburn, Keys of Light

FRIENDSHIP, ADMIRATION AND LOVE INSPIRED MUSIC ON DAN CHADBURN RECORDING

The new album, KEYS OF LIGHT, by pianist Dan Chadburn honors various people whose lives have touched this musician with friendship, love, companionship, teaching, innocence lost, courage, peace and memories.

Although his last recording was all solo piano, this one only has three solo pieces and the rest feature backing by instruments out of an orchestra such as cello, violin, flute, French horn and English horn, giving this music a warm, neo-classical flair. Like a tiny chamber music orchestra, often with strings plus a horn here or a woodwind there, this music is simple and fairly sparse, but profound in its emotional content. An artist’s relationships with others have always been prime sources of inspiration throughout the millenniums of creating all types of art on this planet. It definitely seems to work here.

The English horn on the title track is exceptional and the viola on “Beyond the Rain” is a nice touch. French horn always works well in these setting so check out its use on “Diamond in the Sky” and “Matthew” (or is that only English horn? Oh, well, no matter because it is perfect). The best idea is to go online, use a search engine, find a site that has samples to listen to, and take a listen. Prepare to be peaceful.