Candice Michelle
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At once expressive and colorful yet serene and introspective
Soul Dreams is the eleventh album by pianist and composer Christopher Boscole. A Pacific Northwest native who currently resides in Hawaii, Christopher draws much of his artistic inspiration from the scenic beauty of his surroundings and sailing around the islands, infusing a colorful atmosphere of warmth, leisure and serenity into his lovely compositions. A formally trained pianist who holds three degrees in music, Christopher cites several notable composers as influences, as is often reflected in his own musical style of which spans the jazz, neoclassical and contemporary instrumental genres. Perfectly depicted by its dreamily beautiful artwork, his latest album, Soul Dreams, features twelve solo piano compositions that span approximately an hour.
Like finding the elusive end of a rainbow, “New Hope” opens the album on a serenely optimistic note with Christopher’s hands seeming to glide effortlessly across the keys. Played primarily in the higher range with resonating chords in the lower range, the effect can be likened to watching sunlight shimmering upon a body of water gently rippling in the wind. One of my favorite pieces on the album is “Heart Traveler”, which seemingly conveys a contemplative sense of searching for someone or something. Supremely elegant with touches of classical and jazz, the gentle composition mostly hovers in the mid-range as Christopher plays in a graceful, flowing manner. “To See You Again” is another highlight that exudes an air of hopeful longing, as one might perhaps envision the smiling face of a loved one as the sun’s radiant glow shines upon them. The ensuing “Empathy” is a slower-paced and thoughtful piece that recalls a bit of David Nevue, of whom Christopher cites as among his musical influences.
My three absolute favorite compositions on the album are grouped among its latter half, with the first of these being the title track, “Soul Dreams”. Here, spiraling chords in the mid-range remain sustained throughout, as they’re accentuated by tinkling notes in the higher register. A dreamy, almost cosmic-sounding piece, it seemingly alludes to the spiral shapes found throughout nature, of which includes everything from seashells to the Milky Way Galaxy. Similarly in this mode is the cleverly-named “Mistery”, which effectively recalls Michael Jones (who is another one of Christopher’s influences) and in particular, his Seascapes album that was released on Narada Records in the mid-80’s. Essentially an improvisational, unbounded soundscape, the piece is characterized by continuously cascading and sparkling chords that seemingly mimic a light rain-shower in the wind, as sunlight softly peers through grey skies. Christopher once again slips into this mode on the closing piece, “Suite Sunshine”, which exudes a supernal warmth and overall sense of divine love expressed through nature’s beauty.
Conveying a reflective mood and tender romance wrapped in a wondrous awe of the natural world around us, Soul Dreams is at once expressive and colorful yet serene and introspective. Equally on par with Christopher Boscole’s previous album, Skipping on Daisies, fans especially of David Nevue, Michael Jones and Peter Kater are highly encouraged to check out this outstanding follow-up!
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Dyan Garris
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Beautiful Piano Solos
Christopher Boscole – “Soul Dreams”
Album review by Dyan Garris for New Age CD.com
Christopher Boscole is a classically trained pianist and composer who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music, Master of Music in Studio Music and Jazz, as well as a Masters in Teaching. His eleventh album release, “Soul Dreams,” is quite aptly named, as the solo piano compositions take us on an effortless, delightfully flowing, and soothing journey of almost one hour, on which we are invited on a soul level to transcend the physical and elevate the spirit.
The twelve piano solos found on this album are mainly neoclassical in style, yet at the same time dimensional in nature. There is a lot of easy, natural flow and liquidity here, and in my opinion Christopher’s style brings in some additional facets to our general concepts of “New Age,” solo piano, or traditionally classical music.
And along with the visually attractive album cover art, the music on “Soul Dreams” is exceptionally beautiful as well. Dreamy and peaceful, with some of it possibly improvised, as that is one of Christopher Boscole’s many musical talents, the compositions are fluid and light, transporting us so very easily to a voyage that is beyond ourselves.
The album begins with the lovely and melodic, “New Hope.” This is an ultra-dreamy, truly delightful “soulscape” of sound. Supremely relaxing, flowing, and tranquil, here we are drawn enticingly and willingly into the rest of the “dream.” “New Hope” is followed by the genuinely enchanting “Polyana,” with its gentle, tender-hearted vibe. These are two tracks you may find yourself listening to over and over again.
Track 3, “Heart Traveler,” is passionate and emotional but with a light, calming melody. This feels like it could be conveying the journey of one heart connecting somewhere in the ethers with another heart, melting together into one perfect harmony and one love. In any event, there is much to love here all around.
Not to be overlooked in any way are “Happy Day” and “To See You Again,” which are both quite captivating and enchanting. However, of particular note, and in the vein of “Heart Traveler,” the song on track 6, “Empathy,” seems to capture perfectly how we might feel to be heart-connected with someone else. This is my absolute favorite song on the album. It’s rich, expressive, and hypnotic, with emotional depth and breadth. Plus, it is deeply relaxing, as is also the very authentic feeling, “The Question.” And the tranquility and peace we discover in “Soul’s Journey” on track 8, reminds us that the journey of the soul goes on, even if we may not quite understand the answer to “the question” of what we are doing here or where we go from here.
“Soul Dreams,” the title track, follows on track 9. In alignment with the fluidity of the compositions on the album, the song is quite mesmerizing. And this one is actually a bit “trance-inducing.”
The last three tracks on the album, “Peace of the Soul,” “Mistery,” and “Suite Sunshine,” are more ambient rather than structured. But ambience sometimes has its own definitive structure within. These last three are “shimmery” and “glittery,” perhaps like the sparkling scintilla of our very soul’s essence.
The album, “Soul Dreams” by Christopher Boscole is an effervescent cascade of liquid light and a highly recommended addition to your solo piano collection. ~ Dyan Garris
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Steve Sheppard
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Review from One World Music Radio
While I watched the afternoon stretch out into the haze of a day so mild and warming, I mused over a recent musical trend within the solo piano genre, has this style become more ambient lately, more introspective? I gaze upon the splendour of the day amid the dust storms from the Sahara, and the dark shadow it creates over the Mediterranean, and perhaps yes, that could be the case, the point in question now, is can this be said for the latest album by Christopher Boscole, who has just given to the world a sparkling new offering entitled Soul Dreams.
However the aforementioned postulation of ambience cannot be levied at the opening track from the release entitled New Hope, the composition is full of a glistening radiance of the subject matter in question and this up-tempo and joy bringer of a piece is well named, and one may add, a fine way to start an album for a solo pianist.
Boscole’s music has been described as inspirational and uplifting and that would be a perfect description of the next track Polyana. A wistful and memorable melody can be found here, in a performance that if one listens, can be quite empowering.
We move on to the composition Heart Traveler, and whilst in my opinion ambience isn’t achieved, we find a piece that has incredible depth and mood. This is one those arrangements that’s played with utter honesty, with the heart on the sleeve, and Boscole deserves to be applauded for this quite emotional performance.
The cadence of the afternoon now brings patterns of dusty sunlight in through my windows, creating a wonderful mood for music like this. Boscole now tests that moment of reverie with a fluent offering entitled Happy Day and creates some simply delightful imaginary that suits my current state of emotional bliss. This is cleverly arranged and composed, while many would be expecting a full flowing musical narrative, Boscole manifests something so tender and delicate with a slow tempo that is redolent of just being happy, but appreciating it.
Soul Dreams is one of those albums you really won’t want to miss, it has everything and on the piece, To See You Again, we have another genuine composition of happiness and glee. There is a blissful and delightful openness about this arrangement that is so appealing; one could imagine two friends meeting after such a long time apart and all manner of honest conversations taking place, in the way when you have really missed someone.
Yes, solo piano is a genre that is jam packed with artists of all levels, quality and style and Boscole must be in the top 10 somewhere. Now for that sense of ambience I mentioned much earlier, you will find a hint of it in this next offering called Empathy. A very moving composition can be found here; this performance does touch at the soul level, one can feel through the performance that the artist is creating the energy of truth and peace, to allow us to let go and enjoy the arrangement in its entirety.
We now drift as if on a summer cloud into the latter half of the album, and come across a charming piece called The Question. The narrative here is bathed in a classic new age piano style that stretches back through the decades of Winston and Lanz and forms a soothing, yet uplifting energy for the soul. The performance is outstandingly brilliant and one, I would imagine, would be a real treat to watch performed live.
We’re here at the track called Souls Journey, this is as ambient as it gets, a slow tempo manifests a moment of floating within the musical notes; this is simply beautiful and very emotive too. Boscole has created a world between worlds with the piano, but although the composition is stirring, there is serenity about the arrangement that is so compelling and as thus happens to be one of my favourite pieces off the release.
The title track is now upon us, Soul Dreams has a flow that is quite addictive and the abundant sense of movement here is indeed breath taking. There is a structured pattern of ambience that takes us through and within a realm of dreams, and allows us to bathe in the mirrored pools of its beauty for just short of six amazing minutes of solo piano heaven, this also has to be one of the best performances I have ever heard from the artist, and saying that, you’re going to want to listen to this one many times over for sure.
As we move to the last few portals off the album, the one we step through now reminds me of David Neagle and his Temple of the Forest album of many decades ago, it ripples with the intensity of a composition played from the clear and present channel that Boscole has most certainly got, and is called Peace of the Soul. At just short of seven minutes long this piece is absolutely top quality in all that it gives to us the ever eager listener, it manifests an urgency to be whole, to be at peace, and the desire to just be at one with ourselves.
The penultimate offering is entitled Mistery, which of course is the archaic spelling of what we now call Mystery. As this album has progressed Boscole is literally creating through his compositions, realms of musical awareness as of yet not seen. The performance is fast and passionate, but through this full flowing and empowering narrative, he has created a place of musical safety, a sanctuary of sound perhaps.
Our last offering is called Suite Sunshine, Boscole has crafted this so well and navigated us through the journey of the soul with great skill and talent, this last piece for me is like breaking through the clouds and being bathed in sunlight. So ambience then must be in the heart of the listener and the mind of the musician and the combination of them both is the magic we have just listened to.
I could listen to Soul Dreams on repeat, as music goes it is ageless, it manifests within the arrangements that we are something more than what we are, and from that, gives us hope. Boscole has produced in my view his best work so far, this is an album that once played will leave you with a resonance of peace of heart and ambience of mind, which will simply bring a smile of happiness to your day, however it has been, and that can’t be a bad thing can it?
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Kathy Parsons
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From MainlyPiano
"Soul Dreams" is the eleventh release from pianist/composer Christopher Boscole, and I think it’s my favorite of his recordings so far. Like his previous album, "Skipping On Daisies" (2016), the music on "Soul Dreams" is infused with joy and a lightness that can provide a warm and peaceful respite from our stressful world. A Pacific Northwest native, Boscole released his first album in 1986. He has been living and sailing in Hawaii for the past several years, surrounded by the lush beauty and vibrant colors of the Hawaiian Islands. It is no wonder that his music has taken on similar characteristics.
The first seven of the twelve tracks on the album are more classically-structured and melodic while the last few pieces are freer and more ambient. Boscole composed all of the music and recorded it on a 9’ Steinway D grand piano. Joe Bongiorno at Piano Haven Studios did the digital mastering.
"Soul Dreams" begins with “New Hope,” a piece that flows smoothly and with just enough positive energy to keep it always moving forward. “Polyana” is a favorite. Sunny and optimistic with a grace that is sure to charm, this lovely piece feels like an encouraging smile from a dear friend. “Heart Traveler” is very light and buoyant like sunlight dancing on gently undulating water. “Happy Day” seems to express the satisfaction and peace of mind that come from a really good day that leaves you tired but very contented. “To See You Again” has a wistful sense of longing that is both beautiful and poignant. “Empathy” is another favorite with its heartfelt message of hope. Tender yet very expressive and deeply emotional, it’s a beauty! I also really like “The Question,” a piece that is somewhat darker than the others and makes very effective use of the deep bass of the piano. Gorgeous! “Souls Journey” is one of the more ambient pieces - delicate, relaxed and very expressive. The title track is also freely-structured and flowing with an ethereal touch that isn’t all that common on the piano. Sometimes almost misty and sometimes sparkling brightly, it very effectively expresses the feeling of a dream. “Peace Of the Soul” is exceptionally soothing with fluid rhythms and a delicate touch. It expresses the freedom of improvisation, drifting from one passage to the next as the music wills it to go. “Mistery” shimmers and floats effortlessly, dancing gracefully on peaceful ripples of sound. “Suite Sunshine” brings the album to a close with a very blissful feeling of warmth and calm. The spare, open melody is surrounded by quiet tremolo that sparkles as it soothes.
If you are looking for solo piano music for relaxation or meditation, "Soul Dreams" should do the trick. I don’t recommend putting it in your wake-up alarm, but in this case, that’s a good thing! Recommended!
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