Flight 14 CD by Uwe Gronau

[Lillie]

There is a keyboardist from Germany, Uwe Gronau, who creates mostly-instrumental music that might be termed “progressive new age” because it seldom falls into the traditional new age arena, only dabble in progressive-rock territory, and is regularly inventive and cutting-edge. Sure, there are some solo piano pieces mixed in among the 20 tracks on his new CD, Flight 14, but there also are full ensemble numbers. His arrangements may be a bit all over the place, but no matter what the combination of sounds and instruments, and whether the music is soft’n’slow or fast-paced and drum-backed, it all sounds good. It kind of reminds me of old Moody Blues albums where no matter what they were doing it was always interesting.

The new album starts with an almost prog-rock track (“At The Beginning”) featuring some screaming guitar, diverts next to an almost-ambient solo piano piece, dips down to a slow “Night Train” with a guest saxophonist, tries acoustic piano with a little synth backing on track four (“Lend Me Your Heart”) and moves on to a groovin’-style tune (“Longing For”) with synth, drums and a vocoder chant at the two-minute mark. I could go on for 15 more tracks, but you get the idea of how eclectic and diverse the music is from tune-to-tune (he even sings on one).

Gronau is one of these guys who got classical piano lessons when he was little (his dad was a music teacher), started playing in pop and rock bands all through school, had some success in Germany but never broke big, and finally started putting out his own solo albums (this is his 14th, although not all of them have been available worldwide). Over the past few years he has marketed his music in the new age field (where else could you logically put him?) and has started making a name for himself internationally with Top 5 positions on the Zone Music Reporter chart, solid album reviews and more notoriety all the time.

I suggest you find this album (or any of his) online at a site like CDbaby where you can sample the music. However, many of his tunes start slow and build, or change direction in the middle, so a 30-second or even one-minute excerpt is not going to give you the full picture. And make sure you listen to however much you can of several different tunes because they are all so different.

You will probably find yourself intrigued, fascinated, maybe even mesmerized because this musician has a unique style not quite like anyone else. He can play the most beautiful melody you have ever heard one moment and then follow that with a spacey or near-ambient number, followed by something simple, stark and wonderful, and wrap it all up with a big, bold, ensemble piece that has seven or eight musical things going on at once. The name is Uwe Gronau. Find his music, open your mind and prepare to be enchanted.