Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

With The Changing Light, we see things in a way that either more appealing, or at least different, our perspective altered to the point where the dusk is illuminating, where the ruby brightness is blinding, where the transformation is to embraced.

Following up from his 2017 album Lamp Black, the Edinburgh based musician Richard Haswell returns to the fore to deliver an album that, whilst written and recorded during the ensuing social health storm of 2020, actually finds the space to ensue and proactively promote a sense of freedom, an embracing of frank expression. It is to this beauty in which the sound encompasses with inquisitive non-conformity, a burst of energy full of candour and colour.

To offer new perspective whilst employing the consistent and respected gravitas takes humility and dependability, the understanding of unity that exists between musician and audience, and in With The Changing Light what strikes the senses is the signal of unfailing adaption and stable progression, not afraid to alter, unafraid to be original and reliable. This staunch satisfaction is gratifying and in tracks such as the opening track of The Promise, Lost and Found, the excellent Cheek By Jowl, Dun Laoghaire 4am and the superb Shoshone Point, the combination of musicianship, aided with remote contributions by Pete Reilly, Lewis Kippen, Thomas Urch and Dave Smith, and full scale determination to see the project through, no matter what was thrown at them by the year and fate, is nothing but sublime and delightful.

It is to freedom, whether we understand the concept or if we see it as a means to greater, more urgent matters, that even in dark times we can embrace what is going to be, and with a changing light, with a spectrum of colours thrown upon the dashboard of hoped for challenges, we can alter the meaning, we can be seen to change our minds and offer evaluation, value, evolution, to our own coping mechanism and surroundings.

With The Changing Light, Richard Haswell pulls back the blackout curtains and invites heavy sunlight into the world, a piece of music that charms and regales with pride.

Ian D. Hall