Four Pieces
http://cailynmusic.com/

Instrumentation by Cailyn Lloyd including guitar, bass, keyboards, synthesizers and drums

4 Tracks
Running Length: 40 minutes
Land Of Oz Music CL26265

 

Musician Cailyn Lloyd has an interesting premise in her CD Four Pieces. She takes a classical theme from a noted composer and works her own instrumental ideas around it. Sometimes this works and sometimes not. Three of the four compositions are interesting, but a fourth has an irritating drum that only serves as a distraction. The selections are between seven to thirteen minutes long. Lloyd does all the instrumentation---guitar, bass, keyboards, synthesizers and drums---and it is mixed by Lloyd and Rick Barnes.

 

Track One is “Fantasia,” which is done on a “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” written by Ralph Vaughn Williams. I would have preferred this selection to be the last one on the CD instead of the first one. Not only for length (13 minutes), but because it seems uneven due to a loud drum in various sections. Guitar riffs throughout the CD are stellar, and here, when being introduced to the listener with keyboard, are effective. The drum comes in about minute eight and from there to the end, this selection seems heavy.

 

Track Two, the arrangement for the familiar “Largo” (“Going Home”) from Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” weaves instrumentation well. The drum is here to move the melody on to another section, much as if you would turn a page. Drum is on the sideline except for a small middle section. The melody begins and ends the piece and the sections with guitar and keyboard are complete. You can catch snatches of the “Going Home” melody throughout.

 

Tracks Three and Four, “Adagio” from Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and Lloyd’s original composition, “Nocturne,” are the best on the CD. “Adagio” has a beautiful romantic-era beginning and all through, the drum is quietly in the background. Guitar flows smoothly and segues from section to section, building in intensity to the end. “Nocturne” shows what Cailyn Lloyd can do with her own material. Guitar riffs are gradual, from the beginning where the listener can hear surf and birds, through a melodic valley and quietly back to the surf. A journey of sound.

 

Copyright 2012 Marie Asner
 

A complimentary copy of “Four Pieces” was supplied by Land Of Oz Music
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