Sandy Shore
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SmoothLounge.com Review
There’s nothing like an emotion-stirring piece of piano music… now imagine ten of them. That’s what’s awaiting you on Fiona Joy Hawkins' enrapturing new release, ICE – PIANO SLIGHTLY CHILLED. Classically trained as a pianist, the Australian composer is on the cutting edge of contemporary music that plays well in the World lounge – meaning that listeners all over the globe will find something to attach to in this very personal and inspiring music. She’s charted at the tippy top of New Age music charts with her previous releases and is now piquing the curiosity of chill, electronica and lounge enthusiasts everywhere with ICE – PIANO SLIGHTLY CHILLED. Fiona has the keen ability to synchronize her visual art (original, dazzling, colorful mixed abstracts are available on her website) with her musical compositions. Fiona says, “The idea of synchronicity has always intrigued me, colours, ideas and emotions all have corresponding sounds which are a description of everything I see and feel.” ICE – PIANO SLIGHTLY CHILLED is cinematic, elevating and enthralling… at first listen we knew that we had discovered something deluxe and delightful. Truly tapped in as a conduit to the creative source, Ms. Hawkins has captured our hearts with songs like the entrancing “Frosted View,” the dramatic “Winter Cold,” the delicate and swirling “White View,” and the sensual, Jane Siberry-esque “Crystalized Love.” Chill out at your earliest convenience to Fiona Joy Hawkins’ slightly chilled piano and prepare for deep lounging and relaxation.
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Kathy Parsons
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Wow!!! Cool!!!
When Fiona Joy Hawkins’ teenagers called her a “classical music nerd,” the pianist/composer known for her “music to dream to,” set out to prove a point. To these ears, she more than proved it, composing, arranging, and recording an album that rocks, rolls, and has one great big good time! “Ice: Piano Slightly Chilled” will get the stodgiest of classical music nerds dancing and toe-tapping, remembering why we old fogies loved instrumental rock music ‘way back when groups like The Ventures and Booker T & The MG’s showed us how much joy wordless music can hold and how it can stimulate the imagination. Listen up, folks! Fiona Joy Hawkins has moved into a new direction, and it really rocks. I love this album, and have had it playing with the volume cranked up for several days now. This is one album that packs in great music with imaginative(sometimes funny!) titles that are all on the chilly side. I hope Fiona’s kids are eating some well-deserved crow and are seeing their mother in a whole new light!
Fiona Joy Hawkins wrote all of the music, plays piano and keyboards, and sings on the last two tracks. Dieter Kleemann brings his soulful rock guitar to four tracks, and some tracks feature bass guitar, didgeridoo, tarogato, and other acoustic instruments. Mostly, it’s Fiona doing her own “cool” thing!
“Iced Rain” opens the album with a driving beat, lots of keyboard effects, and a simple piano melody that pours on the energy. Hmmm - this doesn’t sound new agey at all! I like it! “Cloud Chill” begins with didgeridoo and then guitar and piano, with another infectious, driving rhythm. “Frosted View” chills it down a few degrees with a beautiful (but still very rhythmic), passionate piece that is melancholy and full of longing. “Antarctic Wings” and “Snow Bird” are the same song, but the latter has lyrics and the first is an instrumental - both are gorgeous. “Love In the Refrigerator” has to be a classic title, but the piece itself isn’t silly or even light - slow and very effective. I like all of the pieces on this album, but “Winter Cold” is one of my favorites. Again very rhythmic and energetic, this piece really moves. The wordless vocals in the background add to the passionate piano/keyboard and give it the feeling of cool open space. “Frozen Rose” is an icy slow dance that contains the sound of howling wind in spots. “White View” is an alternative arrangement of “Frosted View” with more piano and a mild “eastern” flavor - both arrangements are wonderful in their emotional depth and passionate expressiveness. “Crystallized Love” features Fiona’s sensuous vocals that sing of “freedom, love, touch, heat, ice...” and the sultry request to “crystallize me.” Chills!
Already in the running for some major music awards for 2007, “Ice” should bring Fiona Joy Hawkins a whole new audience to her music. Cool to the extreme, check it out! Very highly recommended!
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John P. Olsen / NewAgeMusic.Nu
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Invention In Music
Australian composer and pianist Fiona Joy Hawkins has 4 award winning projects at present. Her most recent Blue Dream album is successful in placing an exclamation mark after her name when recognizing Fiona’s outstanding abilities and claim to fame in international status. Fiona’s many achievements include charting at # 1 on World New Age radio charts spanning 9 countries, Best Piano album in the NAR Lifestyle Music Awards in 2006, and as finalist in 2 genres in the LA Music Awards in 2007. She also won the Classical / Jazz category in the Music OZ Awards in 2008. after being a finalist 5 times and ranked finalist in 4 categories including Album of the Year in the NAR Awards in 2009. Ice : Serve Slightly Chilled is innovative, dynamic and bold, confidently stated by yours truly. With an inventor’s approach, Fiona’s compositions are patently administered on her Steinway Concert piano as a new musical prototype. It is on the Ice album where this patent innovation in New Age, Contemporary piano begins, charting an adventurous course in the way a musician blends Classical New Age, Contemporary, Chill Out, Jazz, World and Rock. What impressed me the most was a momentary departure from her exceptional, yet more Contemporary albums that won her claim to fame. Portions of the Rock overtones present in this album challenge some of our basic assumptions of the term Piano music. Another concept is a transition in the way Rock music has been perceived in the past, creating a new approach in the way we view the term Rock music. The 10 songs are issued titles with an icy thermodynamic theme, setting the spine chilling mood in motion by providing a mid tempo application of Classic New Age Chill. The song Iced Rain discloses a trademark Fiona Joy Hawkins piano arrangement, yet grants an exclusive design concept by applying a mixture of genres and unique instrumentation. While Aboriginal Didgeridoo echoes an indigenous woodwind call to the wild, ebony and ivory piano keys appear to reach an entire range of octaves to establish a new dimension in piano music. Thunderous percussion unites with electrified guitar to diagram the upbeat momentum for this ground breaking discovery by commingling Classic piano and Rock music into a single entity.
The Ice project discloses more than just an improvement made to a prior existing musical product. Fiona takes an inventor’s approach on a Steinway piano to redefine the fundamental basics of the way we perceive Piano and Rock music.
Cloud Chill is a song innovation that starts out as a meteorological weather advisory on the horizon when native Didgeridoo once again reverbs an ancient voice into the past, present, and future. Fiona’s epic design in piano rhythms then integrate with electric guitar, blending into musical matter cool enough to penetrate what we term Rock music. Her novel invention in composing first finds a crack, pressurizes and then expands, breaking the barrier of Rock music from a familiar musical genre, shattering what was once a large form of music into tiny little pieces, thereby creating a new music entity. The Ice project discloses more than just an improvement made to a prior existing musical product. Fiona takes an inventor’s approach in redefining the fundamental basics of the way we perceive Piano and Rock music.
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