Dave Bainbridge – To The Far Away
To The Far Away is the fourth solo album by Dave Bainbridge; co-founder of Celtic/ progressive folk-rock band Iona and more currently a touring and studio member of both Lifesigns and the Strawbs.
The album, recorded during lockdowns and enforced
non-performing hiatus, veers more toward the guitarist & multi-instrumentalist’s Celtic influences than his progressive leanings (although five of the thirteen tracks are long-form).
But there’s more than enough here to please those who have a penchant for both, or either, genres.
The lush and big sounding album (courtesy of an excellent production & mix from Dave Bainbridge) also includes very good performances by all ten credited (and gifted) musicians.
Opening number 'Sea Gazer' builds from seascape sounds to Dave Bainbridge’s repeating electric guitar figure (building in a way reminiscent of Tubular Bells – no bad thing).
Halfway through the number featured singer Sally Minnear (who also performs with Bainbridge as a duo and in the band Celestial Fire), and latterly Ian Hornal, contribute lead vocals, giving the song a Celtic sea shanty feel.
The eight-minute 'Girl and the Magical Sky' opens with mandolin and spoken word introduction (the prose and majority of lyrics were written by poet & freelance writer Lynne Caldwell) before morphing into what could be described as mid-era Genesis meeting a modern-day Canterbury sound.
The number rises and delightfully falls into a passage Renaissance would have been proud of before Dave Bainbridge contributes his first of many excellent guitar solos, ably supported on bass by his Lifesigns band mate Jon Poole.
'Rain and Sun' is a reflective instrumental number introduced acoustically before settling into a mournful lead guitar pattern embellished by piano, whistles and strings (further echoes of Mike Oldfield here).
Delicate orchestration then introduces 'Clear Skies,' which soon gives way to the Uilleann pipes of Troy Donockley, followed by a guitar & pipes unison Celtic melody.
This high Celtic sequence leads in turn to atmospheric piano and vocal arrangement parts before the piece rises in crescendo to be topped off by an epic Dave Bainbridge solo (full of lightning-fast arpeggios) over some inspired drumming by Frank van Essen.
'Clear Skies' is followed by fourteen-minute magnum opus 'Ghost Light.'
This Celtic prog piece, lyrically based on the "music makers" and the ghost light sometimes left upon a just vacated stage to signify that performers will return (very fitting for the times) contains hints of Renaissance/ YES/ Genesis along with some lovely vocal and chord sequences.
Jon Poole contributes another of his great bass lines on this number while Dave Bainbridge delivers a beautifully emotive guitar solo as the finale.
At just over three minutes 'Cathedral Thinkers' (a musical plea for long-term planning for the planet’s future, not short-term solutions) is positively concise by comparison.
However it’s a clever instrumental (largely in 7/4) that concludes with some lovely piano work by Dave Bainbridge.
'To Gain the Ocean' is a plaintive, piano and whistles led ballad written by Dave Bainbridge while the pandemic separated him from his future wife ("three thousand miles across the ocean, there my love lies, awaiting me"); it’s followed by the complementary 'As Night Falls,' a lovely, sub two-minute instrumental interlude which tips a hat to Jeff Beck (none too shabby a comparison).
The near seven-minute, classical arranged piece 'Infinitude (Region of the Stars)' starts very atmospherically with subtle string orchestration, topped off by beautifully emotive solo violin throughout, by Frank van Essen.
Poignant and positively cinematic, 'Infinitude' is another album highlight.
All of Dave Bainbridge’s influences are encapsulated in the Celtic flavoured title track.
Featuring more stellar guitar work and a whistles-guitar-violin (this time by Julie Cameron-Hall) melody, 'To The Far Away' should stir the blood of any true Celt.
'Speed Your Journey' opens with a Celtic-tinged atmosphere that wouldn’t be out of place on a Capercaillie or Wolfstone album – however, the song soon changes to become a complex and highly rhythmic number with Jon Poole contributing a Squire-esque bass part (Frank van Essen also shines on this number with a driving drum part; he and Jon Poole are truly in the pocket here).
Penultimate number 'Fells Point' is another short instrumental with a Celtic flavoured melody played by guitar and pipes in unison; the tune then builds to a Celtic gallop for the full, fast-feet jig experience.
'Something Astonishing' then drops the tempo to offer itself up as an epic, Hackett-esque closing instrumental, one that also demonstrates a great sense of dynamics.
To The Far Away is a true labour of lockdown love, inspired by the need to create through such times and enforced, travel ban distances from loved ones.
Indeed if there’s one positive to take from the pandemic lockdowns, it’s the number of time-well-spent, high attention to detail, artistic endeavours that emerged – To The Far Away might well be the best of them.
Nelson McFarlane & Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
The album, recorded during lockdowns and enforced
non-performing hiatus, veers more toward the guitarist & multi-instrumentalist’s Celtic influences than his progressive leanings (although five of the thirteen tracks are long-form).
But there’s more than enough here to please those who have a penchant for both, or either, genres.
The lush and big sounding album (courtesy of an excellent production & mix from Dave Bainbridge) also includes very good performances by all ten credited (and gifted) musicians.
Opening number 'Sea Gazer' builds from seascape sounds to Dave Bainbridge’s repeating electric guitar figure (building in a way reminiscent of Tubular Bells – no bad thing).
Halfway through the number featured singer Sally Minnear (who also performs with Bainbridge as a duo and in the band Celestial Fire), and latterly Ian Hornal, contribute lead vocals, giving the song a Celtic sea shanty feel.
The eight-minute 'Girl and the Magical Sky' opens with mandolin and spoken word introduction (the prose and majority of lyrics were written by poet & freelance writer Lynne Caldwell) before morphing into what could be described as mid-era Genesis meeting a modern-day Canterbury sound.
The number rises and delightfully falls into a passage Renaissance would have been proud of before Dave Bainbridge contributes his first of many excellent guitar solos, ably supported on bass by his Lifesigns band mate Jon Poole.
'Rain and Sun' is a reflective instrumental number introduced acoustically before settling into a mournful lead guitar pattern embellished by piano, whistles and strings (further echoes of Mike Oldfield here).
Delicate orchestration then introduces 'Clear Skies,' which soon gives way to the Uilleann pipes of Troy Donockley, followed by a guitar & pipes unison Celtic melody.
This high Celtic sequence leads in turn to atmospheric piano and vocal arrangement parts before the piece rises in crescendo to be topped off by an epic Dave Bainbridge solo (full of lightning-fast arpeggios) over some inspired drumming by Frank van Essen.
'Clear Skies' is followed by fourteen-minute magnum opus 'Ghost Light.'
This Celtic prog piece, lyrically based on the "music makers" and the ghost light sometimes left upon a just vacated stage to signify that performers will return (very fitting for the times) contains hints of Renaissance/ YES/ Genesis along with some lovely vocal and chord sequences.
Jon Poole contributes another of his great bass lines on this number while Dave Bainbridge delivers a beautifully emotive guitar solo as the finale.
At just over three minutes 'Cathedral Thinkers' (a musical plea for long-term planning for the planet’s future, not short-term solutions) is positively concise by comparison.
However it’s a clever instrumental (largely in 7/4) that concludes with some lovely piano work by Dave Bainbridge.
'To Gain the Ocean' is a plaintive, piano and whistles led ballad written by Dave Bainbridge while the pandemic separated him from his future wife ("three thousand miles across the ocean, there my love lies, awaiting me"); it’s followed by the complementary 'As Night Falls,' a lovely, sub two-minute instrumental interlude which tips a hat to Jeff Beck (none too shabby a comparison).
The near seven-minute, classical arranged piece 'Infinitude (Region of the Stars)' starts very atmospherically with subtle string orchestration, topped off by beautifully emotive solo violin throughout, by Frank van Essen.
Poignant and positively cinematic, 'Infinitude' is another album highlight.
All of Dave Bainbridge’s influences are encapsulated in the Celtic flavoured title track.
Featuring more stellar guitar work and a whistles-guitar-violin (this time by Julie Cameron-Hall) melody, 'To The Far Away' should stir the blood of any true Celt.
'Speed Your Journey' opens with a Celtic-tinged atmosphere that wouldn’t be out of place on a Capercaillie or Wolfstone album – however, the song soon changes to become a complex and highly rhythmic number with Jon Poole contributing a Squire-esque bass part (Frank van Essen also shines on this number with a driving drum part; he and Jon Poole are truly in the pocket here).
Penultimate number 'Fells Point' is another short instrumental with a Celtic flavoured melody played by guitar and pipes in unison; the tune then builds to a Celtic gallop for the full, fast-feet jig experience.
'Something Astonishing' then drops the tempo to offer itself up as an epic, Hackett-esque closing instrumental, one that also demonstrates a great sense of dynamics.
To The Far Away is a true labour of lockdown love, inspired by the need to create through such times and enforced, travel ban distances from loved ones.
Indeed if there’s one positive to take from the pandemic lockdowns, it’s the number of time-well-spent, high attention to detail, artistic endeavours that emerged – To The Far Away might well be the best of them.
Nelson McFarlane & Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ