PRESS
CD REVIEW
: "Believe in Joy - Elfin Child Songs"
Brings the Reality of Magic, Dreaming and Love to Children of All Ages.
By
Astri Wright, Associate Professor and Independent Writer
Victoria,
BC, Canada, February 2006.
You know how the births
of people, ideas and practices which in time will be great gifts to the
world often go unnoticed until sometime later? And then, once they are
embraced, amazing stories are told about these early, often obscure
beginnings? Stories which over time turn into myth and magic?
Lo and behold, I have
just witnessed one such innocuous but promise-rich birth, which
vibrates with the great gifts it will spread around like waves of
goodness . Indeed, it is already reaching, and will continue to reach,
many - those of us with ears to hear and minds which know how to
embrace. I am talking about the new CD "Believe in Joy: Elfin Child
Songs" by Victoria-based singer-songwriter, musician and composer,
Rachael Bruton. This CD represents her 'coming out' as a highly gifted
and imaginative singer/song-writer and establishes her firmly as a
gifted artist with a vision.
The production is a
visual, aural, imaginative, collaborative feast. It offers song and
poetry by Rachael, accompanied by her three daughters, who are truly
elf-like children (all of whom are featured on the exquisitely designed
cover and insert, collaboratively designed in tempting fresh greens of
spring by Bruton and Sophie Wood, using the wonderful photographs by
Trevor Bonderud). Musically, the CD is extremely rich in a light mode
which proves that 'light' and 'profound' are qualities which can be
wedded, though this marriage is rarely seen in our current culture of
superficiality-prone sound-and-image media.
Faerie Rachael herself
plays xylophone, tambourine and synthesizer. She is backed up by a host
of carefully selected local musicians playing instruments that echo
with ancient history vast expanses of geography: the recorder,
woodaphone, glockenspiel, metallophone, the Indian tabla drum, and the
celtic harp, among others (– the last three instrument played,
respectively, by Susan Russell, Neil Golden and Naomi Lester)
The song-titles take us
through a day accompanied by faerie-inspired children's poetry,
inviting to play, dreaming, creating, and above all, fun and love. The
first song poses a question to the listener: “Do you believe in Joy?”
This track presents the philosophy underlying the CD as a whole. The
last line calls like a memory-whisper to the listener: “Open your heart
to Spirit...”
The next tracks set the
scene of morning and inspires listeners to leave one’s bed reveling in
the new day. “Wake Up” is filled with the delicate tinkle of morning
bells and then Rachael's molten soprano singing softly; no startling
electic alarm sounds here to catapult you from deep slumber into the
rat-race. The song builds like a folk-round, and soon echoes in an aura
of 'call to vespers' in a medieval English monastery. The lyrics,
however, are not rooted in organized religion, nor are they based in
any glib new age vision. Rachael’s vision is iconic, both ancient and
timeless, and above all, completely attuned to the open mind and
sensory aliveness children have before they (we) are taught to let go
of it for more 'adult' and pragmatic perspectives. “Let the earth
energy flow through your body; rise little one, rise...” reminds us of
the connection between nature and people, between our bodies and the
earth.
The last major track on
the CD is a going-to-sleep song or lullaby, prefaced by a short
conversation between mother and youngest child. Then we are left in
that twilight zone of All-Possible, when the doors between conscious
and unconscious, daytime and nighttime worlds are wide open. Rachael's
voice is brilliant, in the visual, aural and figurative senses of that
word. It sounds as if a higher power forged equal parts crystal, honey
and light and placed this molten gem in her throat as a birthgift.
"Believe in Joy" is not
all dreamy flights of faery imaginings. Many of the tracks are in minor
scales. it also elicits smiles and laughter. “Little Pixie”is all about
Bubblegum. “Butterfly” is a ballad set in walz-time, both intimate and
sweeping. It makes you want to dance and it sounds like a classic
already. “Sharing Joy is Divine”is accompanied by drums to a lively 6/8
beat; we can almost see Henry Purcell dancing to it in a torch lit
hall, guiding his wife around in stately circle patterns. “I am spirit,
therefore I am love” is like a Gregorian chant begun by a single
a-capella and glass-clear voice of a child, in a temple that rings the
sound around the huge, architect-build cavern of stone.
Rachael Bruton’s songs
and melodies hover between and unite categories like “children’s
music”, “inspirational music” and “sacred music”. Behind all of these
musical persona that flit through the different tracks, the tradition
of the British Isles comes through the strongest.
Born in Wellingborough,
England, in the cottage village Mears Ashby, Bruton came to Victoria
via Davidson, Saskatchewan, and Vancouver. She studied classical voice
with Dr.Jacob Ham (whom she describes as “an angel with a huge voice")
at King Edward Campus College in Vancouver. Bruton created the music,
lyrics and arrangements to most of the fourteen tracks. Co-arrangers of
a few numbers are Susan Russel, Patrick Godfrey and Naomi Lester. To
buy this CD produced by Rachael Bruton and Anthony Hebert of Fresh Air
Studios, check with your local bookstore or visit online at:
www.believeinjoy.com
This offering of pure
beauty, awe, magic and laughter is compactly bundled, moveable, and
ready to travel the world. What better time of year than anytime -- or
a holiday like Chinese New Year, or Tet, Christmas or Valentine’s Day
-- or to share this shower of aural light with someone you love?
Beginning with yourself, of course...
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SONGS FOR PARENT AND
CHILD
TO
NURTURE THEIR MAGICAL CONNECTION
Performer/singer/songwriter Faerie
Rachael is art
in motion. Her
voice flows around all
listeners like a poetic
crystal stream while her sweetness touches every soul. Each piece she
writes sends
us beautiful messages wrapped up in delightful, diverse melodies.
She
touches the heart of the mischevious pixie, the sweet faerie and the
nurturing
angel.
Her presense is full of
joy and kindness which she naturally shares with her audiences, leaving
them
spellbound.
ORDER BELIEVE IN JOY CD HERE |
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