by Russel Walder
Real Music
This is… will without saying anything poetic, just "really good." I know it's good because I play it a lot. Oboist Russel Walder takes instrument to a wider audience outside of classical music, and what a treat for lovers of this instrument who wait for that glorious solo that occasionally surfaces in the symphonies of Haydn or Beethoven.
But seriously, this is good. Passionate, sensitive, atmospheric, ethereal, all the buzzwords; many fans of new age music might recognize Walder from Windham Hill's earlier album Winter Solstice. You've also heard him on albums with such big New Age names as Will Ackerman, Suzanne Cianni, and Ira Stein.
Pure Joy is just that, contemplative pieces with lush background arrangements and lush oboe on top. He's expressive, with a full tone, great background for those romantic evenings, or for just trying to get through the day at work, but better yet, you can listen to it straight up, and it'll still keep you on board.
My faves are "Through the Gates," that in fact does sort of have an angelic religioso sound to it; also "More Than Words," notable for its rhythmic background where Walder improvises over the top. (In fact, I asked him to write some words on "More Than Words," which, since it's the net, we can print in their entirety below.) "This Moment Now" features some heart-reaching plucking strings over some slow and noble chords.
I think much of what makes it work is the effort put into the arrangements, cascading like a waterfall out of the stereo; he knows how to coddle his oboe and the listener at the same time, surrounding us both with an island of emotion and sensuality that makes you long to return.
Walder currently lives in New Zealand with wife Caroline Robinson. I'll quiet up and let him talk from here.
More Than Words.
The track "more than words" originated from an idea about improvising over harmonies related to 15th century Czech and Hungarian chant forms. The keyboard harmonies are closely related to chant but of course, I adopted them to suit my own stylistic needs. My great passion for live performance over the last few years has been with predominantly improvised forms. My shows are 100% improvised from the oboe although I'm playing overt pre-recorded tracks. I feel I'm experiencing what the audience is hearing when I don't know what's going to happen. When I'm performing, I don't react to most conscious thoughts about the music, it's a constant blank canvass as far as I'm concerned. The music will do what it wants.
The depths of that experience lead me to want to put that down on the last record for Real Music. It is a one take recording for 'more than words' on the day, which is where I'm headed for the next record. What I'm interested in now is, primarily an experience of an in the moment, depth of passion. When I first started recording with Windham Hill the overall feeling was about the beauty of the song form, now it's about the intensity of the space the track is in coming from an improvised base.
So, 'More Than Words' has become a kind of Bridge to the next project. A bridge to a place that happens without conscious thought of the outcome. There is nothing like the moment you awaken to yourself, a fraction of a second after you have played a few well placed notes.
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