German Multi-Instrumentalist Bernward Koch Unveils CALMING COLORS

German composer, pianist and multi-instrumentalist Bernward Koch's compositions are always characterized by catchy and striking melodies. Embedded in sensitive, harmonious arrangements, the music is interpreted in a picturesque and gentle manner. The main instrument is the piano, often supplemented by other instruments such as synthesizer, flute, guitar and percussion. An important inspiration is the gentle hilly landscape of his home in South Westphalia (NRW, Germany). In 2022, Bernward Koch produced an exclusive piece of music for a new research project of the Els for Autism Foundation at the Els Centre of Excellence in Jupiter, Florida. The content preparation was created in collaboration with the Executive Director of Els, Dr. Marlene Sotelo. The composition, entitled 'Rising Soul', specifically helps autistic people, which was also reported on by the BBC. In 2022, his new album Tree Tales was released for the first time on Koch's own newly-founded label, Tree Tales Records, with international distribution by A-Train Entertainment in California; Calming Colors is the name of his new album that released worldwide on August 30, 2024.

Calming Colors invites you to take a relaxing walk through colorful nature. The music unfolds its effect through Koch's classical handwriting with a sense of form, harmony, and everlasting melodies for a peaceful and restful state. For Bernward Koch music means telling stories. His tunes have proven qualified to calm, make life more pleasant and allow your soul to take a deep breath. With his 16th album, Calming Colors, his signature soothing and calming style again brings the listener an amazing unique tranquility, with a clearly original melody from the piano, enriched with keyboards, flute, guitar and percussion, once again shows dreamy melodies in twelve new, carefully composed and crafted songs.
What is unique is the tonality and vocabulary, Koch uses every note, there are discordant instances but they never break the spell, they add to the depth and detail. Every note fits into a tapestry of unusual tranquility; the pacing is like breathing, each in-out cycle is perfect without being absolutely identical. The tracks are intricately crafted and expressed, each track has a distinct personality, but the effect is amazingly consistent, every track is calming and soothing, simply ahhhhhhhhh!
The first track, "Distant Bell" (4:01) opens, flowing like water, haunting like a memory, with hidden strings and delicate bell chimes. It sounds like the bell is there and not featured with every beat but as a flourish at the best time. What is this magic power? For the next track, "Solemnly" (3:15) the story is calmly told with pastoral colors, flowing like a slow sunset, going deeper slowly, a hymn or a sad poem about the absence of joy, giving all the perspective and context for thought with cinematic recollections and lingering reminiscences, perhaps like watching an old movie. Eventually, the end comes with some pleasing small surprises. "Meadow Dreams" (3:07) begins slowly, the piano starts, a sad old song like the first lullaby. The feeling is both passionate and calm, with tiny ringing hidden melodic accents and embellishments.
The seventh track sounds like a classic folk song with verses and choruses, "Forever Green" (3:36), the feeling is somehow sad and perfect, perhaps calling to the mountains so far away, evoking a pine forest and walking by the river one more time. There is a moment with a chime like a bird that joins once as the listener is climbing and descending, with fancy little trills tucked into the mix. Ultimately full voiced and with a surprise last verse, a piano ballad equipped with all the colors, the harp and what might be a glockenspiel bring us home again.
For the title track, "Calming Colors" (4:44), begins sad and deep, slow and deliberate, perfect in all ways, with a rich shadow gray-silver metal luster, with sparkling moments in the steady weave of mercy, warm and deep like dim amber honey. At points the greens go even slower, purple and red ring the chimes, brown sadness passes changing and fading from blue into black. "Sweet Solitude" (3:50) shifts while retaining a constant elegance. Here the memories are old and comforting to bring back again, a drone plus melody with a diminishing flourish, it seems like nobody else is here.
The final track, "Walk On The Beach" (5:08) changes everything, there is a beat that brings together the whole band, adding some guitars to the constant piano, evoking the theme of happiness and expansive echoes. Up to now the other tracks have been sparse, here emerges a sort of cha cha cha, a cat's bossa nova with a ticking tempo and some wooden beats. The flutes and strings with the percussion all perfectly understated, the sea the sky the waves the sand the horizon the dunes the fullness of life, the details are perfect, it almost ends then starts up again, calm and assured, mysterious and sophisticated, the album ends up floating pleasantly in the air.

Tracks
Distant Bell (4:01)
Solemnly (3:15)
Meadow Dreams (3:07)
Sunny Fields (3:44)
Children's Lullaby (2:52)
Windy Walk (3:41)
Forever Green (3:35)
Little Daydream (4:09)
Autumn Light (3:46)
Calming Colors (4:44)
Sweet Solitude (3:50)
Walk On The Beach (5:08)