LIFE IS...

Belgian artist Susan CLYNES is what most would describe as a young and promising artist, presumably. Still a few years shy of turning 30, and yet she's been an active artist for almost a decade already, her debut album "Sugar for a Dream" dating back to 2005. "LIfe Is..." is her second full length production, and was released through Moonjune Records in 2014.

Susan Clynes is an artist I expect we'll get to hear a lot from in the coming years. At 26 and at the relative start of her adult life there's always a chance that other aspects of life may become more important of course, but if she desires so herself this is an artist that should have a long career ahead of her. It'll be interesting to see where she'll end up in the musical universe, as she showcases a talent for mainstream oriented piano and vocals music just as much as for more art oriented sophisticated pop and good old fashioned jazz on this production. If I should point towards a likely key audience for this specific CD, my guess would be that those with a fairly liberal taste in music and an affection for artists with comparable qualities to the likes of Tori Amos should find this disc to suit their tastes quite nicely.

Susan Clynes is a Belgian singer, pianist and songwriter who is forging her own path in music. After taking classical and jazz piano lessons and attending jazz workshops while in high school, Susan chose to follow her heart: shunning a more traditional course of university studies and career path in order to study music composition, and earning a Master's Degree at the Ghent Conservatory. Her debut album was released in 2005, 'Sugar For A Dream', but this is her first full album since then. She is married to keyboardist Antoine Guenet (The Wrong Object, Sh.t.gn and Universe Zero) and Antoine encouraged her to perform as a guest vocalist on The Wrong Object's 'After The Exhibition' and then suggested casually to Leonardo that Susan should join the label in her own right.

Leo also thought that it was a good idea, and this is the result. Unusually, this is actually a live album in the sense that these songs are taken from three different concerts, and while she is joined by Pierrre Mottet (bass) and Nico Chifki (drums) on two songs, there are another five where she is accompanied by cellist Simon Lenski (from RIO band Daau) and they obviously have a real connection. There are times when I am reminded of early Suzanne Vega or Tori Amos, but at others we are treated to Rio or avant-garde jazz, or torch, or any number of jazz styles. She has a wonderfully clear voice, combined with incredibly effective piano, and there is just the slight use of reverb on her microphone that assists in giving additional presence and the result is something that is immensely powerful. It really demonstrates that it doesn't need crashing guitars or over the top dynamics to come across with something that grabs the listener and holds them enthralled to the very end. It is an absolutely stunning piece of work, and I for one would certainly be interested in hearing the debut now, I wonder if Leo is thinking of releasing that as well? (hint). Sheer beauty from the beginning to the very end. www.moonjune.com

Review originally posted at www.therocktologist.com

What a delicious album!

Susan Clynes is a Belgian artist whose specialty take us to the jazzy side of music, she plays piano, sings and creates her owns compositions. This year some of those compositions were gathered and released in the album entitled 'Life is'' which features 11 songs. The music is not 100% focused on piano, it also has some bass, drums and strings in some tracks, adding special nuances to the music.

It kicks off with 'Life is', what you choose to make of it, and yes it is, Susan Clynes chose to create music, I chose to be a listener and surely we all happy with it, growing with our passionate topics, with the things we love. This song is a nice heartfelt introduction to Clynes' music, her voice is great, but its better how she manages to create a fusion between her voice, the piano and the emotion, so at the end she creates a whole, which is beautifully spread to the listener.

With 'A Good Man' we listen to bass and drums for the first time in the album, here the music offers first a soft and catchy sound which in the chorus suddenly changes and becomes faster and with a kind of vertigo on it, but it always returns to its original form. 'Childhood Dreams' is a very good piece that links her jazzy style with the progressive element, I like the structure of it, I love the communion between piano and cello and how together put different nuances and textures in the music. Wonderful track!

Almost 10 minutes of great music comes with 'Les Larnes', an amazing composition in which the progressive jazz label fits it perfectly. The first four minutes are completely instrumental, a great interplay between piano and cello, both instruments complement each other and create the path for one's imagination, because while the music passes one can put images and create histories on our heads. The song flows with some changes in intensity, in some moments Clynes voice appears without lyrics, adding an extra element to an already great track. This must be one of the finest moments of the album.

The soft jazzy mood returns with 'Tuesday Rain' in which you can close your eyes, feel relaxed and comfortable with the female voice being accompanied by a delicious piano. The same spirit continues in 'Ileana's Song', but here the trio format comebacks with bass and drums. Though this two past songs are nice, I think is a lowlight in the album after listening such an amazing piece like 'Les Larnes'.

'When You're Dead' is another great example of the great compositional skills she has, and the great arrangements the musicians spread with their elegance and cadency, so the music becomes a flying journey to the eden; you listen, then you fly and receive calm and happiness. 'Pigeon's Intrusion' has piano and violin, creating a kind of tango-esque (of course, without accordion) sound, this song also has a cello, which sounds like distorted, but it was made on purpose, so the sound is actually cool, it puts a kind of spacey atmosphere. This is also a very proggy piece.

'Le Voyage' is a short piano driven piece with good harmonies that in moments reminds me of Aziza Mustafa Zadeh. This song is completely instrumental. A similar piece comes next with 'Linear Blindness', the piano work follows the same path, though in this track vocals are added, nice. And the album finishes with 'Butterflies', a great last piece whose lyrics are repetitive but never boring, it actually gave me goosebumps because the intensity is increasing little by litte, Clynes' voice is beautiful, but it is greatly accompanied by cello and piano, so the ambient created here is very, very cool.

This is a great album from this Belgian artist, which I recommend to those who like jazz in general, female vocals and a touch of prog elements.

Enjoy it!