Some people make music for dopamine hacks and click rates. Some people make music because they have something they need to tell the world. But another group of people create from a deeper place, the uniquely human compulsion to manifest an emotional landscape by which to navigate their experiences. This album, ‘Hope’ is of the latter sort: it comes from a pure place of creation; there is no need to push boundaries, or audiences, or concept, only a desire to share a gift in making something beautiful and meaningful.
This is a solo piano album that offers a continual stream of warm, bright, flowing piano songs with clear structure and crystal clear recording. The album length is perfect, and the songs are fairly short and succinct. This is an album to sit, calm down, and contemplate life, and the beautiful chord progressions will not fail to rouse those emotions that are nebulous, difficult to name, and sit deep in your core being. The only challenge offered in this record is the impact it has on the listener: it is a mirror held to your soul. Are you ready to face what wells up, unspoken? Let’s look deeper…..
This album is comprised of 11, thoughtfully named tracks, which give a tremendous sense of depth and consideration to tone, feeling and emotion.
The record starts with A Way Out: Opening with darker toned, warm, soft piano sound, gently playing through some beautiful chord progressions, and a lovely clarity to the melody played over the chords. This song sounds like the actual River that Joni Mitchell would have been skating on when she conceptualised her song of the same name. It evokes feelings of beauty and fragility. Its nicely ended on the tonic chord in quite a traditional way,
The second track, Comfort, grabs me by how lyrical the main line melody is: the piano is ‘singing’, and my brain can almost add in the words. This shows the power of the human mind: each person could create their own language and words to this song, unique to them, formed of their own life experiences and feelings. Unique, unspoken, naturally occurring. The second section has a slight change of color with more minor tones. It isn’t a term used often, but the ending is genuinely beautiful.
Contemplate is the third track. It opens with that airy space created by using suspended chords. Its so easy to drift away in these songs and just melt into the sound: it certainly is a place for contemplation and thinking. I like the movement in the melody line on this one, its quite pacey, with some beautiful phrasing here. These tracks finish with such intention, they offer a completeness that is so satisfying to hear.
Greatful opens directly with the melody and a nice slow 6/8 ebb. Again playing with the sus/add9 feel in chords. Somehow these chords, which sit between hard major and minor, lend themselves to more nebulous emotions, the ones that well up in you but you can’t quite define. Sometimes they feel like urgency, other times like collapse, or acceptance. Greatful uses the melody for a really effective crescendo and then exhales back, using fresh, clear octaves to punctuate the space created. Halfway through, there are some really nice full chords here, big complex ones, but always with a clear top melody to hold it together. There’s an enjoyable minor 9 chord ending.
The 5th track, Hope, has really good clarity in song structure. Gentle arpeggios introduce a clear, lyrical high melody on the right hand again. This is then ornamented with bright, crisp octaves. The third variation offers triplets against the arpeggio, which is nicely balanced and shows a good level of skill in delivery. The second section has a darker starting chord, which always resolves via a beautiful chordal progression. Apt for a song called Hope, as it takes you on a journey from darker to lighter feelings. The song finishes on a tonic resolution again with plenty of flourish and balance.
New Day opens with a perfect depiction of hope and relief. The opening is a good length and creates a sense of anticipation. It then drops into a full, rounded chord progression, with a fluttering melody lifting forward. The gentle ¾ time signature offers a subtle emphasis and forward momentum. Like the other tracks, there are lovely inversions to lift the melody higher. This track is bookended with a similar outro to the introduction. It’s a beautifully rounded piece.
Simplicity opens with a similar formula to the other tracks, but then the melody offers something more playful and excitable in the upper piano ranges. I love the sound of the piano hammer coming through; it’s really high in the mix, and it adds another dimension to the sound, producing more attack and texture. This is still a soft track, however.
Solace opens directly with a melody which feels almost ‘sung’ again. Beautiful lower arpeggio peel under the melody. The sections are clear and well transitioned with a flow that feels effortless between the tempo changes and feels. Solace in particular has more distinct changes in feelings between sections, which, whilst it works, I would happily relax into the feeling of one of the sections for longer. Nice slowing down ending that doesn’t end on the tonic, variation appreciated here.
Sunrise cycles around more warm arpeggiated chords with a higher bright melody, although potentially less memorable than some others. Again, we have the mix of the relaxing major 7 and minor 9 chords to move between relaxation and pensive feelings.
The penultimate track is Transitions. I love how this track plays with increasing and decreasing the energy throughout, taking the listener into a more energetic state, then releasing them into a more relaxing section. It ends with sparse octaves and a beautiful chord ending. Skill on the right hand is really shown off with amazingly fast and accurate work. One of my favourite tracks
The final track is Warmth. A direct opening on the melody, I like it when it’s repeated the second time with the lower third harmony. It gives a lovely color to the melody. The track moves fast between the main melody section and the bridge, and the repeats of the melody are catchy and lyrical; the bridge is pacy and urgent. The track slows naturally with a simple finish. Honestly, I could have enjoyed an extended version of this track.
What works well: This recording captures the magic of just sitting at a piano and playing: it’s delivered at a natural tempo that synchronizes with the breath and flow of thoughts. An organic feel in the playing is therefore captured. The sound quality is brilliant, I feel like I am lying on top of the piano: there is intimacy and immediacy in the sound, yet that closeness is not diminished by the continual use of the sustain pedal. It’s a great EQ balance of warmth from the lower keys, combined with the bright clarity at the top end. The continual sustain pedal, subtle piano hardware sounds (keys, hammer) deliver atmosphere and harmonics that wash the songs with depth and humanity.
This album delivers a clear tone and objective. Marc Harnum has the opportunity, however, to expand on this if he wishes, potentially accessing wider audiences. Some of these tracks are so lyrical in nature that they could be adapted easily for voice, with lyrics added. For some, the human voice might connect even deeper. A string section could also sound amazing on some tracks for dynamic range and a fuller sound. Marc has chosen wider and more complex chords to evoke more nebulous emotions, but the playing style is always beautiful and safe. Can he immerse me in a more 360-degree emotional journey that wobbles away from beautiful and safe, but returns us there? What about the days when we feel Loss? disgust? Anger? He could also play with other cultures where complex emotions and ideas have better nouns, e.g., Setsunai in Japanese? I would love to hear how he would express these.
SCORE/Excellent: For its simplicity, recording quality, delivery of concept and heartfelt motive. I think this would merit ‘Outstanding’ if Marc can master taking me on a deeper emotional journey. I think this would turn the dial from ‘just beautiful’ to ‘existential’.
[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]
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