Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The stories that allow you to direct the narrative as the music sweeps you along are ones that appeal to a different, and perhaps more imaginative side of the brain. The mind sensing an opportunity to add its own colour to the art, its own tale to the endearing presence before it, will go with the flow and produce something unique, its own exclusive drama which at any time the mood changes will add more distinctive sentences and words to the already extraordinary setting encountered.
The instrumental album, the measured recording that requires no additional emotional pull provided by words, these are the suites and collections that add depth to life, and whether you find yourself adding your own words, the mind concocting scenarios and scenes to provide an assisted personality that suits the individual, or just relishing the beauty that rises from the musician, there is a moment where it all becomes about truth and ecstasy.
Such is the power at the hands of Neil Campbell, such is his partnership with Nicole Collarbone on the prelude E.P. Berlin Suite & Other Stories, that the eagerly anticipated two albums due soon are given a resounding and glorious reveal of intent.
The unity of spirit displayed by both artists is one of fierce brilliance, the five songs that appear, Berlin Suite, Ode To A Penguin, In The Moment, Hoobie Tango, and Yachts, 1959 are entangled and intertwined, and yet each provides its own personality, its own force, from back story to conclusion, these five pieces are to be seen as heralded heroes who, as yet, don’t know how pivotal they are to the saga to come.
Sweeping gestures, dramatic pauses, sounds that don’t require a voice of narration, this is the positive impact that Neil Campbell and Nicole Collarbone have on the ear and heart of the listener. The scenes reveal themselves, the players, the situations, unveil as though they have been undressed by a master sculptor in a packed gallery, the heady aroma of expensive wine and waiters serving discreet canapés filters through the air, and the much-required air of appreciation that inevitably follows is one that lasts a life time…these are the stories of musical wealth served, of suites and collection, of moments that are simply astonishing.
Berlin Suite & Other Stories is the prelude to a larger offering, and one that is keenly felt in the air.
Ian D. Hall