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I did not follow his New Age period. I was all the more pleased about his new release Someone's Singing (2022). This album is not a throwback to Chieli's earlier creative days, but something new in his solo career. Above all, it is an album where the performance on the acoustic guitar is in the foreground. Complementary support for Chieli has come from Jerry Brooks (bass on New Faith), George Jinda (percussion on Free Again), Steve Skinner (strings on Free Again) and Fernando Saunders (fretless bass on Your Spirit). Chieli performs on his album these guitars: Scharpach flattop 6-string, Sunbird semi-hollow nylon string electrix, Vienna Opus archtop, Orozco classical, Gibson 175T, 1984 Pensa-Suhr custom electric. The album opens with a guitar interpretation of the classic African American spiritual Kumbaya. Chieli had an intimate relationship with this piece even in his youth, when he would strum this old tune around the campfire. If you listen closely, you will notice different guitar timbres, which illustrate the meticulousness with which Chieli renders the spiritual on different guitars, merging everything into a homogeneous overall piece. Bright Sky foreshadows the expanse of the West where the wooden knocking rhythm can be associated with the run of shod horse hooves. People usually connect church music with the organ, which is probably the oldest instrument in this field. On Church Chieli spiritualizes his instrument and thus conveys the guitar as an instrument of worship. Dreaming Little Drummer Boy was originally released by Chieli under the title Little Drummer Boy's Dream for the collection Carols - The Sound Of Christmas (2019). An outstanding interpretation of this old Christmas carol. The title Forks in the Road stands for the different directions a piece can take, which often only develop after the first few auditions. The beauty of today's multitrack recordings is the ability to accompany yourself. Chieli makes excellent use of this on Candelight. Free Again was the last composition, to which Minucci's late Special EFX partner, George Jinda, could contribute his typical percussion rhythm. In this way, movement arises from atmosphere. Liminality is a term from anthropology that describes a threshold state in which individuals or groups find themselves after they have ritually detached themselves from the prevailing social order. Chieli translates this concept musically, interweaving and disentangling a variety of guitar sequences. New Faith is a re-recording of the track Faith, which Chieli recorded for his 1996 album Renaissance. A dynamic interplay with the bass player Jerry Brooks. With Cup of Love, Chieli has created a piece full of harmony that can be placed in the realm of folk music. Fretless bassist Fernando Saunders prepares the introduction to the following Memories of Mother with a deepened tonal approach on Your Spirit. The final tune is a wistful memory of Chieli's beloved mother Catherine. With Someone's Singing, Chieli Minucci presents his followers a multifaceted guitar album that surprises with its diversity.
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Album Information
Title: Someone's Singing
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My
personal Chieli Minucci collection started with his albums
Jewels (1995), Renaissance (1996), and It's
Gonna Be Good (1998), continued with Sweet On You
(2000), Night Grooves (2003), and Got It Goin' On
(2005). In addition, there were numerous Special EFX albums to
collect.
