Another impressive melodic instrumental set from Nick Pynn, the UK player who is adept at playing multiple instruments and overdubbing himself to great effect, sometimes collaborating with others such as on the impressive One At A Time Orchestra.
Today’s item Visions / Revisions and Impressions comprises two conceptually separate items, yoked together here as a “2EP” (OSCAR RECORDS OSC007). Visions / Revisions are eight songs and instrumentals situated more or less in a modern folk idiom, with some spirited tunes sitting alongside pieces of a more melancholy hue. In the latter mode, ‘In The Emporium of Light’ could be just right for your next Sunday-morning anthem of reflective sorrow; I can easily imagine Robin Gibb singing it around the time of the 1970 Robin’s Reign album.
From here we segue into six pieces intended to complement famous Impressionist paintings from art history; and in case we don’t get the point, the booklet thoughtfully includes colour reproductions of the exact paintings he has in mind, by Seurat, Monet, Pissarro, et al. Pynn was inspired to do this after he bought an art book in a charity shop, and used his “noodling fingers” to “illustrate [his] own impressions”. One admires his immaculate skill with guitars, violins, mandolin and viola, and the concision of the tunes, though these prosaic tone-pictures are tinged with the same introverted sentimentality as the tunes on the Visions / Revisions segment. I’m rather unsatisfied by this fluffy item, despite its sweet melodies and likeable demeanour; didn’t Pynn used to be a bit grittier? His boat once sailed along the river of traditional English folk (or one of its tributaries), but now seems to be drifting towards the waters of easy-listening. (03/04/2024)