Howard Ferre
  • Before You
  • Wax Branches
  • Turning Point
  • Driving Back South
  • Reaching Out
  • Stained Glass Reflection
  • Passage Through
  • 5 Years
  • Journey's End
  • Before You
    Genre: Ambient
    MP3 (09:04) [20.99 MB]
  • Wax Branches
    Genre: New Age
    MP3 (04:21) [10.24 MB]
  • Turning Point
    Genre: New Age
    MP3 (05:14) [12.22 MB]
  • Driving Back South
    Genre: New Age
    MP3 (04:44) [11.08 MB]
  • Reaching Out
    Genre: New Age
    MP3 (03:26) [8.11 MB]
  • Stained Glass Reflection
    Genre: New Age
    MP3 (03:45) [8.84 MB]
  • Passage Through
    Genre: New Age
    MP3 (04:16) [10.03 MB]
  • 5 Years
    Genre: Smooth Jazz
    MP3 (04:26) [10.43 MB]
  • Journey's End
    Genre: New Age
    MP3 (04:23) [10.28 MB]
Music as Aural Art
As usual I listen to an album many, many times before I write a review. So was the case of Howard Ferre's Journey's End. When I looked up his bio, I realized that someone had hit the nail right on the head when it came to a descriptor of him . He is a sound designer. That is what I gleaned from his music. He sculpts, he shapes, he paints and he composes music in a physical way so that when it is heard, it takes solid form in the mind's eye. It is truly magic. Howard's music crosses or perhaps blends is a better word, many genres. There are ambient, jazz, cinematic and contemporary musical vignettes on this album. All of them are a delight. All of it challenges the imagination. What is truly astounding however, is that even though Howard Ferre has been composing music for 25 years, Journey's End is his premiere album. I wish he had started sooner.

I have always thought that music can provide movement, and in the opening tune, Before You, I felt as if I were inside a circle of sound. All I had to do is go with the flow and I felt encompassed by the warm, ambient sounds. I did not take the title in the literal sense, but as if everything was laid out in front of me and all I had to do is make small choices.

The very first time I heard Wax Branches, I knew it would be my favorite on the album. The sound comes in slow, hypnotic waves, the piano notes trickle into the melody. It provided a picture in my mind of a candelabra with tall candles slowly burning, giving my life ambiance, light and a modicum of warmth. I could just about see the wax melt in creamy rivulets as time passed very slowly.

Driving Back South was a bit eerie. I imagined that instead of driving down some dusty back road in Tennessee on a balmy summer night, I was returning from a trip to Sirius, one of earth's nearest stellar neighbors in the southern sky. I could feel the shock of the cold surroundings, the starkness and the somewhat loneliness that was all around me. A most unforgettable journey. In the end, like using Sirius' northern counterpart, I was shown the way home.

Passage Though surprised me with a background of male chant, a firm up tempo and a synth melody worthy of Enigma. This tune had forward movement and reflected the journey theme of the album. However, the movement may be not through a land of a fierce yellow sun and endless arid sand, but of time itself. For do we not travel through time at every moment? This is the soundtrack for the crossing.

5 Years is a jazz tune, plain and simple, but there is nothing simple about the composition. As the thunder boomed in the track I found myself in a storm of indecision. As the music played out I thought perhaps that the tune did not belong in the lineup, but then everyday life seems to be tumultuous and five years of it seems like a respite these days. The tune is catchy.

The last song on the album is fittingly, Journey's End. A strong piano lead is the conveyance for this somewhat bittersweet finale, but of all the nine tracks on the recording, this is the most memorable. I listened to this tune several times and decided it had a cinematic feel. It did not say to me that this was the end of the journey as such, but it asked that seeing as this challenge had been fulfilled, what now? I am not sure that this Howard Ferre album is appropriately titled. I think that for Howard and his music this is a beginning. At least I hope so. Highly recommended.

Rating: Very Good
- reviewed by RJ Lannan on 8/26/2011 for Zone Music Reporter
http://www.zonemusicreporter.com/recording/viewreviews.asp?rvwbrd=2&rvwbrdpstn=1&rvwbrdcmmt=928

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  • Members:
    Howard Ferre
  • Sounds Like:
    Arvo Part, Winterlight
  • Influences:
    Pat Metheny, Peter Gabriel, Arvo Part, Philip Glass, John Williams, Miles Davis and Pink Floyd
  • AirPlay Direct Member Since:
    07/22/11
  • Profile Last Updated:
    08/14/23 15:57:34

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