New Age Music World

Posts Tagged ‘Devin Rice’

Solo instrumental albums are a natural source of personalized music, so when two reputable soloists merge their singular talents, an alliance from soloists to duettists is an even more valuable source of personified music for everyone.

Devin Rice & Erin Aas are seasoned musicians already recognized by their proficient styles as individual artists. Now they emerge as a team that write and perform original piano with guitar, and finger styled guitar duet compositions with hand selected artists adding polished accompaniments on their new release titled Arrival.

Residing in the state of Washington, Devin and Erin traveled to the Imaginary Road Studios in rural Vermont to enlist the expertise of GRAMMY® Award-winning artist Will Ackerman. The level of quality with the album’s production retraces their visit to a highly specialized destination.

Arrival is an album where Devin plays piano and guitar along with Erin, showcasing their 15 song compilation that is adventuresome and symmetrical from the first song to the last. After meeting for the first time several years ago, I felt their earlier mainstay as professional soloists has been doubled and enhanced using simple math, along with their broad variance in individual styles.

Devin Rice and Erin Aas, have selected skilled team of artists, along with GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Will Ackerman, to emerge as a fortified musical team. By virtue of each artist’s specialized skills, they have attained an award-winning strategy with Arrivial.

Thyn Ayre is the crisp beginning song that sounds like a down to earth journey put to sheet music, like Procession, where a wonderful just right feel becomes the standard atmosphere. These folk styled narratives flourish during the piano and guitar duets set in a moderate tempo like most of the 15 songs.

Borderline is a breezy guitar duet by Erin and Devin, while their Tribute to Robert Frost expresses a more stately approach that includes percussion rhythms backing majestic piano melodies with subtler acoustic guitar highlights.

Lively acoustic guitar and percussion rhythms are heard on the memorable song Nevada, while Something About A Harbor has piano lead in for guitar, with rich melodic tones showing depth in a natural way. 

Perdido En Granada, Lullaby For Now & For JB are gentle and more introspective songs with English horn and cello support that compliment the pleasing atmosphere.

Whiskey In The Watertower is a spirited melody, and nicely coordinated guitar duet that features a wonderful guitar solo performed by Will Ackerman.

This song resembles Pulborough Spring by taking an up-tempo direction from the primarily moderate paced piano and guitar duets with instrumentals.

Rich cello harmonies are the scenic backdrop in songs, Morning With Annie, Southern Breeze, & Stars of Winter, with the latter song taking an adventurous free flight expression during the melody and refrains that gently lands with guitar, cello, and piano uniting in an ensemble.

Although solo albums are a mainstay and pleasing source of enjoyment, Arrival is a nice departure from singular solo albums given the enriching instrumentals and contrasting styles of the two principal soloists.  This departure notably doubles the fine harmonic value for the listener, along with Devin and Erin who have likewise doubled their musical achievements together as a team, and as individuals.

Additional artists are Derrick Jordan on djembe with Eugene Friesen and Traci Hoveskeland giving cello performances on several tracks. Jill Haley lends her talents on English horn and Will Ackerman plays guitar on the final song.

Visit devinriceanderinaas.com to sample or purchase, and at their CDBaby.com page. Read their biography page with how it all began. Visit the Imaginary Road Studios of williamackerman.com. Big Stock Photo copyright – MelMcNaughton.