Pearls Of The Soul by Stephen Van Handel

It is based around a repeating motif that is the most catchy and engaging I have ever heard, woven in counterpoint with other brilliant and bouncy themes, with a strange break in the middle. As the title suggests, it is optimistic, powerful, joyous and triumphal, but it has a light touch, and some dark shadows too. I think we need this kind of music sometimes, along with more easy-going or mysterious kinds of music; it uplifts us in a time when so much of our society and institutions are disfunctional and leading us to ruin. "The Triumph" might help us believe that there are still artists out there who can express hope and optimism. Although positive, it goes way beyond the usual superficial, innocuous, nauseating, "happy and light" style of new

age music. Stephen makes clear his intentions along this line in his description of "The Triumph":

"All of us at some time go through some personal crisis. A rough start, loss of a loved one, losing in love, some major personal reassessment. And sometimes more than once. But for some reason, if the struggle doesn't kill us, we get through. A little more 'shining' inside. And I think, maybe just a little bit more compassionate.... I wanted to write something for us that celebrates that universal struggle which binds us all. That celebrates the evolution, and the 'life affirming' process of learning a life lesson well. A triumph over crisis that makes us better than before!"

Although totally unique, I could compare this piece to others we all know to get the flavor. It's something like John Williams' theme music for the 1984 Olympics, and certain pieces by The Who like "The Rock" and "Overture to Tommy," to the famous Bach prelude, and even to Mozart's Jupiter Symphony finale. Like his other pieces, it lacks "perfection" in places, but this piece has an awesome climax that is more inspiring perhaps than anything since Beethoven and Mozart. That may be stretching it; but certainly the artist's expressed theme reminds one of those of Beethoven and Peter Townshend.

Another track I especially like is "The Winds from Nazca." This one takes its time warming up, but it blends some Peruvian and Andean influences with clever themes and natural wind sounds to make a brilliant and relaxing mix. The final piece on the CD, "Solace," is emotionally engaging and makes a reassuring and wistful finale. Stephen's piano playing here is quite sensitive. Throughout the album there are gentle "pearls" of experience, with ringing and crystal sounds that gradually penetrate their way into our souls. This is New Age Music of a unique and genuine kind. I highly recommend it.

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HYPNAGOGUE, AMBIENT NEWS & REVIEWS:

Les Pieces and Chiaroscuro are well-crafted pieces that showcase Van Handel's bridging of classical sensibilities and New Music/New Age style...

...In between the two is the astounding Pearls of the Soul. Right from the start this CD is infused with a sense of release, playfulness, and a need to explore. Lighter by far than the other two works, Pearls combines Asian and Native American musical styles and blends them neatly with some experimental touches. Consider the tiny bits of electronic percussion that flit from side to side in the opening track, "Asha, Awake," sounding at first like a glitch but resolving themselves into a vital component of the piece.

In places, Pearls carries echoes of Shadowfax or Mike Oldfield, repainted with Van Handel's personal palette and overlaid with the constant sense that the composer is just having a damn fine time for himself. From the drum-driven world-groove feel of "Winds of Nazca" and the joyful "Ese Pequeno Sentimiento de Felicidad" to the softer, more ambient touches of "Thunder Dance" (which is too good to be so short!) and "Listening in Ancient Caves," this CD is a clear labor of love and a pleasure to listen to. The only mis-step here is the anthemic and bold "Le Triumph," which would have been more at home on either of the other albums. After that somewhat tangential piece Van Handel gets back into the perfect slot he's created with two more New Age-tinged pieces and then closes the work with the blessedly lovely "Solace," a gentle piano piece that leaves the listener wanting more--not just of this album, but of Van Handel's increasing mastery of the genre.

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Pearls Of The Soul - Stephen Van Handel

As the "year of the glut" in self-produced new age and electronic albums draws to a close, it's become easy to discern the original voices because there are so few of them. Occasionally a truly individual artist miraculously invents himself and this gentleman is one of them. I will guarantee that you have never heard anything quite like this album. Both in overall scope and in the many unique details, this is one of the most promising debut albums around. The material ranges from elegantly playful through quasi-symphonic to tearingly beautiful, all with a unique sense of sound and texture.

HEARTS OF SPACE

Pearls Of The Soul - Stephen Van Handel

Stephen had made up an elaborate package of beautifully packaged cassette, lengthy notes, and original artwork (Stephen's a graphic designer by trade) to send around to a number of labels in late 1988. After what he calls "almost a year of hype from record people", he ended up funding the project himself anyway "in order", he writes, "to remain true to myself and to keep the music honest". Pearls Of The Soul is perhaps the paragon of what an independent release can be - voluminous notes (a little story to go with each of the eleven tracks), immaculate attention paid to the smallest details, and music which comes straight from Stephen's heart without concessions to commercialism. This kind of presentation just isn't possible under most corporate thinking. Stephen's music was all written on a Mac using Digital Performer and played back on Yamaha keyboards, using extensive digital samples. He uses percussion on only one track, lending a dreamy ethereal quality to his pieces, which are less tunes than they are musical atmospheres.

Some startlingly original digital sounds make their debut, and overall the project has a sort of wide-eyed innocence which should not be taken for naivete. No, this is very deliberately uncommercial music, totally anomalous in the greedy '90s.

ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN MAGAZINE

Pearls Of The Soul - Stephen Van Handel

As you stroll along an uncharted byway through the woodsy hills of electronic home recording, you come upon a small shrine, obviously of great antiquity. And what are these sounds? Monks playing Andean flutes? The rattling of a large bamboo water wheel? No, it's Stephen Van Handel. Odd little phrases on synths and samplers come and go with an airy disregard for pop music's conventions of phrasing and structure, and there's not a snare backbeat anywhere on the horizon. The eighth note ostinati aren't even quantized! This is easily the most personal and courageous album of the month. Also the most charming.

KEYBOARD MAGAZINE

Pearls Of The Soul - Stephen Van Handel

Self-produced and marketed, this will likely be snatched up by New Age distributors in no time. Van Handel's 72-minute disc is full of effortless, lush, highly melodic synthesized and sampled sound, very complex in layering various timbres and themes within a track. While the package rates high on the sincerity meter (complete with stories of Van Handel's visionary experiences that describe many tunes), it does not borrow from commercial New Age idioms. Van Handel thankfully avoids adding a rhythm section, and is willing to allow chaos and the unexpected into these excursions. Only one tune (The Triumph) hints of mass appeal drivel, and then only indirectly. Elsewhere, the noises are varied and ear-catching as only digitized symphonic can be; sounds that evoke Andean folk music percolate in and out of haunting wind instrument samples, ethereal space excursions merge into distant thunder and gentle percussion, and a Schumannesque piano solo caps the album with a classical neatness. A balanced, healthy dose of relaxing, visionary music, with a good sense of both melodic invention and dramatic orchestration.

OPTION MAGAZINE

Pearls Of The Soul - Stephen Van Handel

Stephen Van Handel is a musical visionary. As he says in his liner notes, "My vision/goal was not to ideally write 'perfect' music, but has always been to write music that is expressive and human." And expressive it is, drawing on global musical styles, interpreted through cutting edge electronic technology to sketch these vignettes of the soul. Elements of Oriental, South American, and tribal musics come and go in fragments, jostling one another, rising and falling out of a silence that is so important to this music. This is a journey through some of the more exotic and bizarre areas of the human psyche, a neo-primitive initiation full of subtleties and nuances. Each piece is inspired by a different image: crossing a bamboo bridge suspended over a mist-filled gorge, a tribe celebrating the passing of a thunder storm, a foggy beach in the early hours before dawn. By turns jubilant and introspective, impressionistic and lyrical, this is experimental music at its strangest and most alluring, a music of paradoxes, perfect for the spiritual adventurer. And after journeying around the world and through the psyche for over 72 minutes, all is resolved in the poignant simplicity of the final piece, where wistful piano mingles with the sound of falling rain. For those daring enough to take it, this is quite a journey!

BACKROADS MAGAZINE

Pearls Of The Soul (USA) - Stephen Van Handel

Some may remember Van Handel for his striking first cassette release, Pieces for the New World. As a follow-up to that he has produced a new CD that's even more beautiful. Pearls Of The Soul is a surreal/impressionist montage of symphonic melodies and delicate effectual embellishments, all interwoven

by the most evocative of rhythmic movements. The high level of compositional sophistication and deeply emotional ambiences are completely integrated into a warm, seamless flow of electronic/natural sound that will enchant you anew with each listening. I can't rave enough about this one as the recording and art packaging are also excellent.

EUROCK

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