Beginning in the 1980s,
the Australian Nick Davis originally
made his reputation as a singer-songwriter
and keyboard player, influenced by models
such as Howard Jones and Nik Kershaw.
Two solo albums had considerable success
in Australia. After a spell away from
the music scene, he returned with –
amongst other things – a Frank Sinatra
tribute show in which he played and
sang. Interested in the rise of both
World Music and New Age music, he began
to evolve a new musical style, which
might be called neo-classical. This
was explored in a series of albums,
of which this is the most recent. Details
can be found at www.nickdavismusic.com.
Making use of the East
West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra
sample library and the East West PM1
Bösendorfer 290 piano library,
Nick Davis creates, on some tracks,
a large symphonic sound which – once
one’s ears have adjusted to a slightly
unusual string tone – is perfectly acceptable,
even if one is never in serious danger
of mistaking it for a real orchestra.
For all Davis’s subtlety there is still
a certain stiffness, an excessive ‘correctness’
to the overall sound; in that respect
this is, unintentionally, an object
lesson in quite what live performers
bring to music!
As for the music itself,
Davis creates some very attractive melodies,
and often develops them interestingly.
On In My Heart the ‘live’ violin
of Dan Carney is added to sampled piano,
cello and flute and the result is a
delightful, deceptively simple piece
of some beauty. Lullaby for Madeline
is a piece for solo piano which has
real charm and elegance and distinct
echoes of Viennese classicism. The gentleness
of these two compositions is complemented
elsewhere by writing of far greater
extroversion. Return of the Brave,
with its fife and drums and its pipes
(and a fifty piece string section) is
both jauntily welcoming and aptly military.
Pieces such as A Lover’s Lament,
for piano, strings, woodwind and brass
and The Fallen, for the same
forces (and percussion) have elements
of the popular piano concerto about
them.
This is an object lesson
in how modern technology can be employed
by a talented and creative musician.
With its melodies, elegance and distinctive
textures, this deserves to find plenty
of hearers. If anybody out there is
looking for a composer of film-music
who could bring to the job plenty of
musical ideas, a gift for melody, an
obvious familiarity with a range of
musical traditions and high technological
skills, Nick Davis is surely your man!
Glyn Pursglove
ND 009 [44:06] 
