LIFE IS...

What a delicious album!

Susan Clynes is a Belgian artist whose specialty take us to the jazzy side of music, she plays piano, sings and creates her owns compositions. This year some of those compositions were gathered and released in the album entitled 'Life is'' which features 11 songs. The music is not 100% focused on piano, it also has some bass, drums and strings in some tracks, adding special nuances to the music.

It kicks off with 'Life is', what you choose to make of it, and yes it is, Susan Clynes chose to create music, I chose to be a listener and surely we all happy with it, growing with our passionate topics, with the things we love. This song is a nice heartfelt introduction to Clynes' music, her voice is great, but its better how she manages to create a fusion between her voice, the piano and the emotion, so at the end she creates a whole, which is beautifully spread to the listener.

With 'A Good Man' we listen to bass and drums for the first time in the album, here the music offers first a soft and catchy sound which in the chorus suddenly changes and becomes faster and with a kind of vertigo on it, but it always returns to its original form. 'Childhood Dreams' is a very good piece that links her jazzy style with the progressive element, I like the structure of it, I love the communion between piano and cello and how together put different nuances and textures in the music. Wonderful track!

Almost 10 minutes of great music comes with 'Les Larnes', an amazing composition in which the progressive jazz label fits it perfectly. The first four minutes are completely instrumental, a great interplay between piano and cello, both instruments complement each other and create the path for one's imagination, because while the music passes one can put images and create histories on our heads. The song flows with some changes in intensity, in some moments Clynes voice appears without lyrics, adding an extra element to an already great track. This must be one of the finest moments of the album.

The soft jazzy mood returns with 'Tuesday Rain' in which you can close your eyes, feel relaxed and comfortable with the female voice being accompanied by a delicious piano. The same spirit continues in 'Ileana's Song', but here the trio format comebacks with bass and drums. Though this two past songs are nice, I think is a lowlight in the album after listening such an amazing piece like 'Les Larnes'.

'When You're Dead' is another great example of the great compositional skills she has, and the great arrangements the musicians spread with their elegance and cadency, so the music becomes a flying journey to the eden; you listen, then you fly and receive calm and happiness. 'Pigeon's Intrusion' has piano and violin, creating a kind of tango-esque (of course, without accordion) sound, this song also has a cello, which sounds like distorted, but it was made on purpose, so the sound is actually cool, it puts a kind of spacey atmosphere. This is also a very proggy piece.

'Le Voyage' is a short piano driven piece with good harmonies that in moments reminds me of Aziza Mustafa Zadeh. This song is completely instrumental. A similar piece comes next with 'Linear Blindness', the piano work follows the same path, though in this track vocals are added, nice. And the album finishes with 'Butterflies', a great last piece whose lyrics are repetitive but never boring, it actually gave me goosebumps because the intensity is increasing little by litte, Clynes' voice is beautiful, but it is greatly accompanied by cello and piano, so the ambient created here is very, very cool.

This is a great album from this Belgian artist, which I recommend to those who like jazz in general, female vocals and a touch of prog elements.

Enjoy it!

Share this SUSAN CLYNES review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to memowakeman
• Report this review (#1384591)
• Buy SUSAN CLYNES music online with PA partners
• Show all SUSAN CLYNES MP3/Stream
• Go to SUSAN CLYNES page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Life Is... page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for SUSAN CLYNES related discussions