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The one thing that I enjoy about running Ambient Visions is
that I am always in discovery mode when it comes to new music and it is a great
feeling when I find an artist or an album that I have never heard before but is
great nonetheless. One of my habits is to wander around on Facebook on the
weekends to see if there are musicians that I might have missed because as we
all know there are dozens of releases each week and oftentimes something will
just slip away without ever being heard or discovered. What I found in my
journeys this time around was a true gem of an album called Surrounding by Kimberly
StarKey.
Surrounding is an album of solo piano compositions that
simply shine from the first notes of Capsuled Morning and continues all the way
through the last track which is called Be Glad It Happened. Sometimes music
will capture my attention on the first listen and others grow on me with time
and multiple listens. Kimberly’s wonderfully inspired album of songs definitely
fell into the category of capturing my attention from the first refrains of the
opening track. Capsuled Morning is a positive song that is filled with light
and emotions as it washes over you and the echoing melody simply rivets the
listener’s attention as she weaves the rest of the composition in and around
it. A song like this at the beginning of an album practically guarantees that
listeners will want to follow wherever Kimberly decides to lead with the rest
of the album.
It is apparent that Kimberly has invested herself in her
music and it is reflected in the passion with which she pours herself into her
playing and the resulting memorable melodies that have found their way onto
this album. Surrounding is a gentle and comfortable experience that will leave
the listener in a peaceful frame of mind as the skillfully crafted songs wend
their way into the listener’s consciousness. The recording quality of the
project is superb which is essential when the focus of the whole album is a
single instrument that must carry the weight of the entire recording on its
back. Throughout Surrounding Kimberly again and again demonstrates that she has
mastered her instrument and that she is more than capable of taking human
emotions and translating them into her compositions.
Surrounding is an intimate and inviting collection of compositions that are instantly engaging. Kimberly has infused these songs with a great sensitivity that is made all the more moving by her heartfelt and confident work at the keyboard. Some of the standout tracks for me were Capsuled Morning, Vision, Be Glad It Happened and This Moment. Kimberly has shown us with Surrounding that she is a world class musician who is proficient at creating a captivating collection of songs tinged with warmth
and friendliness. We look forward to many more albums from Kimberly StarKey in the coming years. Recommended by Ambient Visions.
Reviewed by Michael Foster, editor Ambient Visions
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