Label: unsigned

Producer: Rhonda Rosalee

Release Date: 2005

Rhonda Rosalee is one of the finest contemporary classical/new-age/symphonic rock/soundtrack solo artists I have met in a very long time. The girl seems to effortlessly produce the kind of piano led instrumentals that bind your heart and soul in total harmony. Upon first listening to any one of Rhonda's tracks from this album, you feel immediately priviledged and a central part of her celebration of life's most treasured sentiments. It's all very ubiquitious this music of hers... it's grasps at your attention like a butterfly to nectar and you stand in awe as that butterfly takes flight .. beckoning you to follow.

We have to accept that Rhonda Rosalee, the performer, producer, and consummate recording artist, has that little omnipresent 'something' constantly by her side, at all times, but more specifically whenever she's at the keyboard. The symbiotic relationship that exists between Rhonda's personality and the sounds that flow across, above, and beyond the keys is something she most definately has a deep and tangible passion for. All we have to do is listen, appreciate, and.. become consummed.

Behind the Shadow, released in 2005, is a phenomenal album scored with care and the touch of one who posseses the kind of magic afforded virtuosos and contemporaries that have been equally blessed.

Serenading Winds opens the album with a bright and colourfully slow tempo and is emblazoned with a richly melodic and inspiring arrangement. The Piano is arranged cleverly and precisely to add emphasis to the strings and echoing pulse of harp sounds that make you relax if you're feeling remotely anxious and anxious for more if you're consummed by the notes. At the other end of the sky, the part where the sun tends to be, you find yourself gliding and observing the places below during the opening moments in Territorial Soldiers with it's eastern influences and South American whisps of fluted echos. The percussion is soft and fashioned to smartly co-exist with the central theme in the piece ... those happenings below the flight you've willingly taken.

One of the most beautiful of Rhonda's compositions is entitled For all the Years. It's a sentimental piece that highlights a fleet of extraordinary piano skills against a breeze of memorable and finely positioned strings. I could listen to this astonishing piece of music all day long and for lots and lots of days after! The Tsunami Trail meanwhile, is delicately reminiscent in concept to December 2004 when the SE Asian tsunami took the lives of over 175,000 people. It's compassionately embracing string and piano arrangements are rich and innovative treatments that Rhonda has managed to master since first sitting at the piano when she was only eight years old. Rather than produce a dark and melancholy piece, Rhonda's approach to is to be vibrant, hopeful, and reassuring and we are assured of that in every single note as it was being performed.

Across the Miles firmly establishes Rhonda Rosalee as an incredibly gifted soundtrack artist/composer with that magic touch that only the greatest film score writers tend to possess. Watch out for the detail in the piano and you'll soon find yourself succombing to the invite at the dance. War in the Scarlet Skies is an exceptional piece of music worthy of much praise and appreciation not just for the composition itself and the superbly rich arrangemets but for the creative edge and inspiring drive that must have made this track possible in the first place. There are some truly clever inserts to watch out for that add to the 'flavour' of the piece at points where the ingredients are already truly awe inspiring.

His Grace is contemplative contemporary classical at it's best. I'd defy anyone to find this beautifully composed piece of music anything but magical and enchanting. Rhonda's string arrangements and trickling piano work are absolutely compelling and when the track reaches it's inevitable end.. the overwhelming need to press the play button again leaves you with no other choice.

Behind the Shadow, is this albums anthem and an epitaph to everything that's worth something in the contemporary classical/soundtrack arena. There is so much inventiveness in Rhonda's art and that uniquely woven tapestry of inventiveness nestles in clearly in abundance here. For Disheartened however, the mood shifts quietly across to the more contemplative and reminiscent parts of our consciousness and you feel tinges of sadness in perhaps the same places where Rhonda meant them to rest and find peace. It's another beautiful example of Rhonda's delicate but precise theme work at play and I have to wonder if, in the recording of this enigmatic instrumental, she managed to put whatever she found disheartening aside? If I had been responsible for writing and producing this magnificent album, I'd find it very hard to ever be disheartened about anything!

The Pursuit of Truth is a little further removed from the realm of explored sentiments and nostalgia that Rhonda has shown us previously. With a more upbeat flavour and with the support of some wonderfully abstract ideas and inserts, this is a track that I am sure would prove to be very popular with the more serious of audiophiles while the rest of us shout chorally and harmoniously 'TOLD YAAAAA SOOOOO!!!!' A Breath Away meanwhile is both comforting, regardless of your mood or situation, and intensely magnificently enchanting. Tricklings of piano in all the right places again highlights what I meant earlier when I pointed out the symbiotic relationship that exists for Rhonda between composer and her instrument. In this case, both elements are nicely synchronized to produce a wealth of colour thta's actually not as common as some would have you believe. You can believe it here.

The final and twelfth track on the album is When Sadness Cries.. absolute confirmation that we have a superbly innovative artist in our midst that deserves so much more than a mere pat on the back or even a standing ovation. The sheer beauty and absolute magnitude of this piece is what aspiring composers in the genre need to strictly adhere to and learn from. The strings are haunting while offering a place of solace, striking while pursuing your heart, and eventful when the only event on the horizon is that celebration of life and living I mentioned earlier on.

Rhonda Rosalee is a tremendous asset to the world of film and soundtrack music, a magnificent artist with a penchant for piano, and a truly gifted girl from Lousiana with the good sense to want us all to share in the result of her inspirations and endless creativity. The only problem with artists of this standard is that they now have to live up to our demands and expectations... and we greedily expect so much more from Rhonda Rosalee as time and circumstance allows.

 

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