When Your Eyes Kissed Mine

Music from the album 'When Your Eyes Kissed Mine' by John Barnard

This is a review by Ben Ohmart

"All the way from Aussieland comes a new age album of beauty and simple depth. 'Simple depth?' Yes, consider Caribbean water that isn't reflective but completely clear to the bottom. This is how I feel when listening to the soft and supple orchestrations of such a disc.

If this was all done on a synth, it's a damn fine keyboard. I honestly can't tell. The backing strings are that fuzzy shape that could very well be real without compromising a classical strain. New age nuts may balk at the elementary piano melody of, say, 'Maria (Sorrow, Joy, Love)', or they might think it fits right in with the less ornate compositions that are trying to expose true relaxation to the soul.

Whatever the vote from die hard fans of the category, these 'Eyes' are stress-reducing candies that should be popped on in the background and treated like vitamins. You can't tell what the hell vitamins do for you. They don't seem to do anything. But after a while, you feel better. You know they've done the job. Barnard has made his own B complex here, with sharp skill.

Four long tracks to enjoy (on this stream), beginning with 'Lift My Eyes From the Earth' which could easily be snatched from any current Hollywood movie. It is 10 minutes with a solitary sunset, no one else in the world able to behold its magic. That is what shivers from the almost Christian potency of such unadorned magic.

I love it. But then I went in with hope, loving what new age and healing instrumentals set out to achieve. Though one might say they are more interested in the mood than the tune, what IS music for, except to provoke a satisfying stimulus in us all? Country, death metal ñ we all have our releases. This tranquil Barnard album is one of natural and global unities, scored for an armchair".

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