New Horizons by James Bowden

Reviewed by Paul Poulton

What is lurking in the depths of this double disc'd package with el cheapo artwork is not half bad, in fact there are times when it is most pleasant on the ear. Brit James Bowden uses mostly piano-based lines that move neatly in various, if unexciting, directions, but satisfying none the less. It's mostly two lines of music, melody and chords, the feel sometimes drifts into shades of 16th century, though by and large the feel is modern. Most of the tunes are played adagio to andante (slow and a bit quicker), James enjoys typical quaver based arpeggios, which so many piano players rely on to get them through tunes. I'm not so keen on them myself - why fill up bars with spam notes? Music needs to breathe, which isn't easy when there's clutter around. There are, however, interesting ideas going on in most of the tracks, none of which have names, just Track 1, Track 2, etc. Differing samples help bring some variation to the 21 tunes. The strings work particularly well and there are times when the progressions go just where you want them to go which certainly helps in making the CD an enjoyable auditory experience.