Tom Eaton – How It Happened (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:10:25 minutes | 639 MB | Genre: New Age
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Spotted Peccary
How it Happened is not happy or cheerful music, it is consistently calm, sometimes dark and somber. The instruments are all held deep in the glowing sound of the ambient reverberation haze. There are keyboards ranging from what sounds to me like a huge stadium-size in magnitude piano, to a whimsical harmonium, plus an actual accordion, and of course synthesizers, lush and rich in timbre and tone. Each song has lots of extra silence in the distance between one ending and one beginning. There might be just four notes played on the entire album, over and over again like waves on the shore, and they are ample. It works perfectly, just what the medicine man ordered. Relax. It is also good for your blood pressure too. Listen for yourself! Breathe out and soar into beauty. Utterly superb, highly recommended.
The music floats up into the air and shimmers, hanging there like an Aurora Borealis, just above your speakers. A sound that is timeless, easy, gentle, refreshing, and certainly restful. There is no hurry anywhere on this album, no driving rhythm or beat, no pulse pumping percussion, nothing like that. The compositions have very few notes, very simple, sustained open melodies, always slowly repeating and easy, like daydreaming clouds. Like a distant mountain mirage, huge and steady. Relaxing and complex, music for those moments when you want to breathe out and reflect.
Tom Eaton plays piano, synths, acoustic and electric guitars, fretted and fretless basses, accordion, and percussion on this album, which has the title How it Happened and is his first release on the Spotted Peccary Music label. Some of his influences include Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre and Tim Story.
How it Happened is what he considers to be his third major solo album. The first two are not his first ever, but he likes to draw the line there. The two previous albums are Abendromen (2016), the first part of the title is “Abend” which means evening, and “Dromen” is dreams; followed very shortly afterwards by Indesterren (2016), which means “into the stars.” Plus, there is a single, “Matjora is Still Alive” (2018), which is a cover of a Johannes Schmoelling delight. All three of these recordings are on his own label, Riverwide and can be found on Bandcamp. These recordings are all piano based, with lots of fancy production work for an amazing and distinguished polished sound. Did I mention that Eaton has worked as a producer and engineer with Will Ackerman at Windham Hill since about 2010?
Tracklist:
1. Tom Eaton – Ice (05:37)
2. Tom Eaton – An Unexpected Opening (07:57)
3. Tom Eaton – Mk, and How It Happened (07:18)
4. Tom Eaton – The Slow River (09:21)
5. Tom Eaton – Later, At Night, By the Lake (06:58)
6. Tom Eaton – Genezen (13:00)
7. Tom Eaton – The Fog and the Lifting (06:24)
8. Tom Eaton – Until Her Eyelids Flutter Open (13:46)
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