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Album Review: Autumn Musings
Anewday
Cover image of the album Autumn Musings by Anewday
Autumn Musings
Anewday
2006 / Fat Cat Productions
42 minutes
Review by Michael Debbage
The anticipation of a new day brings hope of daybreak accentuated by a slow peaceful sunrise. Along with that comes a sense of eagerness to seek new adventures and explorations that are concluded with a canopy of stars hanging effortless in the silent skies of our infinite universe bringing the day to a soothing end. Musically, Anewday is just that and more conveying an assortment of musical ponderings that will only leave you asking when they will be exploring their next musical season.

The Nova Scotia duo met approximately four years ago when pianist Rob Miller was looking for a place to record his first song. By accident, he met producer Ron Huestis who offered to record his music at Ron’s home studio Fat Cat Productions. After recording several compositions together, Ron suggested embellishing Rob’s compositions with orchestration and additional accompaniment. By the year 2006 the request to assist as producer transpired into Anewday giving birth to this magical recording moment paying respects to the auspicious season of autumn.

Opening with the soft pitter patter of rainfall, rolling thunder, atmospheric strings along with the soft rolling drums, “Celtic Dewdrops” demonstrates the magical experience of Autumn Musings. Followed by the moody and musky “Summertime Reverie” only brings home the point that this dream team is for real. There is even the somber Latin influence of “Spanish Reflections” that features Bob Sutherby on classical guitar. The song exudes elegance and a sense of sweet melancholy.

While Anewday loves to play the surreal theme it is not all pastoral and reflective. The rhythmic punch of “Snowflakes Dancing” is exhilarating and inspiring. Clearly Ron’s time and experience with members of the progressive rock group Saga was well spent. There is also the percussion driven “Stormdance” or the more whimsical toe-tapper “Dreams Come True” with Rob dancing all over his piano.

The seasonal tribute concludes with the reflective “Starry Skies” followed up with the slow graceful “Irish Farewell” which is a perfect venue to merge Rob’s piano with Ron’s string arrangement which is the essence of this musical partnership. To be candid, there is absolutely no filler here which makes one tend to forget that this is a dazzling debut versus a veteran group in full stride.

“A Song For Scheherazade” was the first song that brought Rob and Ron together and Autumn Musings is the harvest of that wonderful moment. This musical partnership shows a high level of professionalism and creativity that is bursting at the seams with a variety of influences and exploration. Bring on winter, spring or summer and lets muse some more.
January 1, 2006
This review has been tagged as:
Debut AlbumsMichael's Favorites: 2006
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