The Changing Of The Seasons is the first solo album by Producer and musician Raphael Mann who has previously worked with Art Terry, Marianne Dissard, Lunatraktors, Tom Rodwell etc as well as running Frizz Records.
The album opens with the hushed tones of Out Of Love With The City about realizing that you're ready to retreat to someplace smaller and more manageable to the big city that used to fill you with awe and wonder, the sparse keyboards and vibes have a hushed intimacy.
Rabbit Runs keeps things hushed and quietly bucolic at the wonder of watching the Rabbits, while evoking the most pastoral folk music around.
Grey Heron has Raphael looking towards the water and the Grey Heron's in the bull rushes ready to take flight across the pond, the subtle beauty of the birds flight mirrored in the gentle music.
Pink & Green Emperor is both about watching his daughter grow and bloom in the rural wonderland of the countryside, also of watching the birth and flight of Pink And Green Emperor butterflies, while echoing some of the most subtle Momus tunes.
Waiting For Spring explores the difference of welcoming spring in the city to the countryside and just how more vital spring feels in the country, slow reflective guitar and woodwind, like you can see the first blossoms of spring being blown across your vision by the gentlest of breezes.
My Imagination Of A Swan certainly makes it sound like this is a far more peaceful swan than may be the reality, the essential beauty of how they float along being mirrored in the super smooth backing, his swan is revealed being stripped of her make-up, the sylph like qualities shining through.
The Changing Of The Seasons is full of close observations for the subtle differences you notice as the year slowly goes by, the tablas give this a bit of an Incredible String Band feel of lush ethereality.
Darkness & Light strays a bit towards Belle & Sebastian territory for the close reflections of how dark life felt when he was young, light emerging later they are breaking out of a cocoon.
--Time Piece—ticks like a very loud grandfather clock, with the odd chime or two, it leads into When We Have The Time that is a reflection of how suddenly on leaving the city Raphael has more time than he used to, but is still trying to do all the things that make life interesting and worth living, the song has an almost medieval folk outro.
The album closes with Late Blooms one last slice of carefully lush restrained beautiful folk with some delightful musical twists on a song that could have been a long-lost song from the Topic records catalogue.
Find out more at https://theraphaelmann.bandcamp.com/album/the-changing-of-the-seasons https://www.raphaelmann.com/ https://www.facebook.com/raphaelmann
