from The Aquarian, Spring 2000
EverSound Expressions
Listen to it at Amazon.com
EverSound
reviewed by Syd Baumel
As this sampler proves, EverSound
is a label that is EverSweet, but not EverSucking. These 11 tracks flow
like milk and honey.
Stuart Hoffman's inspirational "Joy to Joy" (Silent Longing) sets the tone of polished musicianship and intelligent, passionate feel-good songs. John Adorney's "Dance of the Moon and Stars" (Beckoning) keeps the beauty and light flowing. Manuel Iman next adds some spark with his sensitively assertive Spanish guitar in "Care" (Flowers in the Desert). On solo, less-keys-are-more piano, Michael Whalen pauses for a heartfelt bedtime prayer in "Before I Close My Eyes" (The Softest Touch). Next, Nigel Holton sweeps us up Above the Clouds in "You Are Love" and then we're off to dreamland in "Home" (Dream Manifestation), where Ron Clearfield charms with his lyrical cello over ambient washes.
My favourite track is by an unalbumed EverSound artist with the improbable name of Fuzzbee Morse. Fiercely African in rhythm and darkly beautiful in its haunting atmospherics, "Dark Tropic" leaves me hungry for more from this veteran sideman. Not so the music-boxlike "Thank you for Today" by another EverSound artist without an album, Kazuhiko Ikegami. It's as close as the label comes to being saccharine. Geoff Bridgford, also unalbumed, quickly makes up for it with his way cool electric guitar stylings in "Malibu Rain" followed by John Mills' full-bodied solo classical guitar in "For You" (Hallowed Moon).
The sampler ends with something almost completely different: a song with words by Australia's Kim O'Leary. Devotional, with a winning pop-country music melody and a progressive arrangement, "It's a Real Love" is another EverSound track in search of an album.
Listen to it at Amazon.com