Magazine Sixty Music Review with Richard Norris

Greg Fenton reviews Richard Norris – Music For Healing: Equinox

Reading remains essential as does listening. Two things Richard Norris has made exemplary both with his recent illuminating book, Strange Things Are Happening, and via his creation of sound such as this compilation of twelve seasonal pieces of music. The word music is key here. As I touched upon elsewhere, music without words has almost to try harder to convey its message, connecting emotion and conversation with the receiver which this album does beautifully.

I only happened on Music For Healing: Equinox this morning by chance and its compelling refrains seem to fit the untroubled blue skies and crisp cold air perfectly, like warmth surfacing from nowhere. For some reason, water often figures as does memory haunted by joy and pain when stepping off the curve, soaking up the spectacle of it all. At present I’m lost somewhere in the first track, Winter Equinox 1 and the undulation of emotions being generated brings me back to the idea of music itself, rather than the unimaginative use of drones to suggest ambience this does a whole lot more than that, reaching far into the depths of the psyche. Each number hits the twenty-minute mark and is worth each second of blissful melancholy alongside what is genuinely uplifting as chords and moods morph and alter shape. When the sounds stop you feel a sense of loss, that is the comparative difference.

Music for outside and in.

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Richard Norris on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mrrichardnorris/
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