Imagine what you would do, and the things you could accomplish, with a history and experience of audio engineering, a purpose-built studio called Time-2-Dream, a coffee shop that supports the cost of your studio and your music making dreams and desires, and a location that inspires... constantly! Guido Negraszus seems to have it all in the bag... his discography is like a treasure chest of rare and beautiful ear candy and his zest for life and the music that comes with it is quite awe inspiring.
I met Guido, in person, in a little West Australian town three hours south of Perth. His presence has that difficult-to-describe blend of charm and charisma that often accompanies truly gifted and talented musicians. When he discusses music, his hand gestures, are keyboard-native... as though there's an invisible Grand Piano popping up occasionally. His musical influences and inspirations include Mike Oldfield, Enya, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, and Jean Michel Jarre, and passing hints of these are occasionally evident in his music, however, Guido is actually up there with them... just as innovative as his influences have been and certainly just as creative. The man lives and breathes excellence in music, it was such a pleasure meeting him and a truly great pleasure being able to review his latest release - Mirage.
Mirage, is without doubt, a reflection of Guido Negraszus' soul, inspirations, and innate musical craftsmanship. It is an album born of the 'New Age' genre in instrumental music and as Guido points out 'The beauty of instrumental music is that everybody can imagine their own themes; all we have to do is listen and relax!' Sooo that's exactly what I did listening to Mirage.
The album opens with Cafe Mirage, a track carried forward by calming percussive treatments with incidental horns and piano parts that give you the feeling that your are indeed traveling through a literal soundscape of aural delight. A Mediterranean flavoured guitar sequence is sprinkled into the mix in just the right spot followed by the pausing effect of fading strings.. nice! Bon Voyage is the perfect up-beat second track with it's bright and fluorescent sequences and engaging piano licks, it's a nice tune for uplifting your mood, whatever your situation. The Blue Planet is my personal favourite, and that is a healthy enough reason for me to have included the track on the Mervyn Swift Online Music Tour compilation. I particularly like the arrangements here... lovely, bright, positive, and expertly mixed and produced. As the music builds and moves forward, I'm left in a happy state of euphoria.. but what is perhaps most interesting from a technical perspective, is that the song embodies Guido's early influences, bridges those with his own unique style, and the accomplishment I discussed earlier in this review becomes obvious and apparent. The Blue Planet is quite simply a superb track, composed by a superb musician. Watch out for the deeply emotive ending... nice work Guido!
Heartlands never fails to amaze me... regardless of the number of times I play it, this is one of the most beautiful instrumental pieces I have ever heard in my life. I like romance when it's real... and Guido Negraszus has made the romantic theme in this composition very real indeed. A great deal of care, musical passion, and gliding imagination has been thrust into this shard of excellence in a way that is quite unique... in a way that makes the piece a little more transcendental than most composers could possible manage. Westcost Heights is travel inspired... it makes for great driving music, great travel music, but as I'm doing neither of those things right now (I am at my Scout's Digest motionless desk) it makes for great travel imaginings!
Fata Morgana before I played it, made me quite curious. The track title is a personification what ever way you look at it, but then the music!!! I am completely knocked out every time I press play. At almost 6 minutes in length, the arrangements are so incredibly clever, it's a wake up piece... an epitaph to what can be done in instrumental electronic music when you know what you're doing and Guido knows exactly what he's doing... every insert, every VST shaped thingyo is meticulous, charming, and indisputably quite brilliant really! You will love the amazing and quite intricate guitar parts! Then we get to Cafe Mirage ll and Cafe Mirage lll - two tracks that move drastically forward from where we were at the start of this album. The sequential running themes and intermittent percussion sections tend to straddle across workable yet unpredictable time signatures... the mark of a true instrumental artist... and how he or she goes about captivating a wide audience is abundantly clear in these compositions... both tracks are strong examples of music composed and arranged with classiness all over the place!
Eclipse is the track that almost broke Sgt Rutherford's heart when he first heard it! (Sgt Rutherford of Mervyn Swift fame). The slow to mid tempo pace of this startling piece of music is completely enchanting and it's easy to see why the Serge loves it so much! Watch out for the majestically moving choral parts and swirling dervish-like pads... they lead you to a landscape of pure guitar dominated bliss... I could write pages about this track but I'll leave it at that! Valley of Dreams l and Valley of Dreams ll are two contemporary classical compositions that I wished I'd written. The meandering female vocals are reminiscent of early Vangelis and of early Pink Floyd... but the music is absolutely in an interstellar class of it's own, slow moving, focused, and sweeping, it makes you want to give up whatever you're doing and dedicate your life to producing the consummate album. The magnificent guitar invoked ending is quite astonishing... be amazed... be very amazed!
Bon Voyage ll is many rungs up the ladder away from Bon Voyage but is every bit as uplifting and every bit as cheerful in it's arrangements... it's such a happy tune and I imagine it's owner was a very happy guy indeed for having composed it! The Grand Desert meanwhile, is the one minute 49 second audio carousel you'd want to ride if you had the golden ticket... it's a bit like a monolith... a kinda of hold-your-breath track before you move on to the almost 17 minute long grand finale that is the title track Mirage. Now... whatever your musical persuasions, whatever test of time you have ever afforded instrumental music of this genre, you have to be impressed by Guido Negraszus masterful performance and production skills here. Mirage is a completely engaging and captivating achievement in modern sound sculpture. It's the piece of music that awards were made for... and it comes from a guy who is destined for greatness... whether he is awarded for it or not, it's all on the horizon for the man who made Mirage!
