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REVIEWS
THE EFFECT IS SUBLIME
by Heath Andrews
 Living and moving from one end of North
America to another, keyboardist and composer Carlos Schwarz embraced a rich,
multi-cultural upbringing. Born and
raised in Mexico to a German ancestry father and then later having moved to
Canada, Schwarz’s musical growth mirrored that diversity as he learned
traditional accordion playing before then moving onto the piano. Now being an award nominated musician, having become
one of the top three finalists in the 2010 Roland Synth competition, Schwarz
has turned his skills towards the genre of new age music. Many of the myriad influences through his
life have found their way onto his 2012 album, Sea to Sky. Schwarz
incorporates Celtic, Middle Eastern, and Asian instrumentation into his music,
producing distinct texture.
Schwarz aptly shows his talent for
arrangement on the lead-off track, “Farewell.”
Strings are a prominent instrumental theme throughout the album proper,
and that all starts here. The strings
are very gentle and warm, but not so gentle that they become mere
ambiance. There’s also a large driving
force in the vocals.
The ending also demonstrates again why Schwarz
is a talented composer. The piano and
strings blend together beautifully to create that perfect new age sound. It should also be noted that the way he
structures his songs is in a far more condensed version as opposed to other new
age artists. Many of Schwarz’s songs are
in the range of four to five minutes, which in the scheme of this genre, is
relatively short. This should be
especially appealing to new comers or more casual listeners, as the album has a
great flow to it thanks to the unique feel to each song that seldom overstay
its welcome.
In terms of uniqueness, compare something
like “Farewell” to the song, “The River.”
Instead of the strings on the former, the latter is initially pushed
along by a haunting piano melody. Later
it becomes joined by the deep, resonating sound of the cello. This continues until suddenly, the strings
lighten in mood and are joined by a quickly picked guitar part, under which the
strings grow more and more lush. The
song alternates between these two different sounding passages until it reaches
its end; but each iteration of the melody is warm, peaceful, and engaging on a
relaxing level.
With music like this, subtle touches can
make or break the quality of a song. On
“Walk of Life,” the guitar line and how that picks up in the second half of the
track against the strings and piano is entertaining enough, but the unique
percussion beat adds a tremendous amount of flavor. It’s a programmed, electronic drum beat, but
the pacing of it and the way it pulses through the song works strongly with the
rest of the arrangement. Contrast this
against “Memoirs” where the simplistic yet sublime guitar melody and unwavering
warmth from the backing strings carries this song through one of the best arrangements
on the record.
Sea
to Sky shows a great deal of talent and potential for
Carlos Schwarz. When the various
cultural sounds that he utilizes blend together that well, the effect is
sublime. Certain traces of this can be
heard on “Our World” and “Reunion,” songs that very much channel the music of
India and the Middle East.
— Heath Andrews, Reviewyou.com |
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COMMENTS
“Love the elegance and balance, so primitive and pure.”
— Shannon Roley, solo artist
“This is gorgeous.”
— Sarah Gurr, vocalist Luminous Flight
“Carlos has a very unique endowment of composing this type of music, it makes the listener to think, relax, and dream at the same time, it's quite extraordinary.”
“Love the song Farewell, nicely done and accomplished.”
— Jagraj, ReverbNation Fan
“Enjoyed listening to yopur music; very well crafted and performed.”
— Kerry Leigh, ReverbNation Fan
“I love your music.”
— Simon Allan, ReverbNation Fan |
