CD Review – Flight 14, by Uwe Gronau
Uwe Gronau's musical flights of fancy are always worth the price of the boarding pass, and compared to actual airfare tickets, this is a real bargain.
Kick back, relax, and let the German composer's keyboard and synthesizer textures and rhythms take you away from the world of the mundane on a journey of soft sounds and progressive tunes.
As he does on all of his albums, Gronau manages all by himself to replicate a variety of performance contexts, from solo piano to duets to a full band sound, sometimes with vocals. Sax appeal is provided by Matthias Keidel on one track.
Uwe Gronau is one of those names that you know you're in for a musical treat like no other.
--Raj Manoharan
Despite all the problems in the world today, versatile German composer and keyboardist Uwe Gronau says, “I think humans are smart enough to create a good society for future generations, and one of the keys is the utilization of music.” The theme of pondering the future helped inspire the music on Gronau’s latest album, Thoughts of Tomorrow.
Gronau strongly believes that art, and specifically music, is a tie that binds together every human from all countries and cultures. “There are special things in life that can only be described by music and art. If you try to open the secrets simply with words, it is impossible, and the secret will not exist anymore. Not even the military or police could calm down the restlessness of people who have a presentiment or foreboding of life without secrets and wonder. Art is an absolute necessity for humans to live a good life on this planet.”
Uwe Gronau (pronounced ooo-vuh grow-now) is a master of many musical styles with numerous eclectic recordings. His musical enthusiasm and boundless creativity cannot be contained. Primarily a keyboardist, on some tunes he plays solo piano, on others synthesizer or organ, and often he mixes together several keyboards, at times with bass, percussion, drums or other sounds. His music ranges from new age to space, from jazzy to progressive-rock, from ambient or avant-garde to extremely melodic with pop sensibilities. He only performs and records original music. Thoughts of Tomorrow was produced by Gronau with his longtime musical associate Clemens Paskert.
Gronau has numerous previous CDs (some primarily available in Europe). Several are mostly instrumental music -- Midsummer, Seven Paintings, Sonnentempel, Nightwalker and Intuition. Others feature Uwe singing on many selections -- Children, The Beauty of the Sea, Someday, Ciel, Time is a Sound, Full Moon Forest and Time Rider. His latest albums -- Midsummer, Time Rider, Visions and Flight 14 -- have been marketed internationally and all have climbed into the Top 5 on the monthly international Zone Music Reporter Top 100 airplay chart.
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Uwe Gronau's musical flights of fancy are always worth the price of the boarding pass, and compared to actual airfare tickets, this is a real bargain.
Kick back, relax, and let the German composer's keyboard and synthesizer textures and rhythms take you away from the world of the mundane on a journey of soft sounds and progressive tunes.
As he does on all of his albums, Gronau manages all by himself to replicate a variety of performance contexts, from solo piano to duets to a full band sound, sometimes with vocals. Sax appeal is provided by Matthias Keidel on one track.
Uwe Gronau is one of those names that you know you're in for a musical treat like no other.
--Raj Manoharan
