My Beloved Review – Steve Sheppard
My Beloved
By Michael Dulin
Written By
Steve Sheppard
My Beloved is a proud and bold statement of love, where many create lavish backdrops to impress, Dulin plays from the heart to the heart.
The new release My Beloved is a slice of New Age Piano that fans will be eager to have in their collections, a good example is the opening track entitled Beloved. Beautifully played with a classical feel Dulin performs a piece that is brimmed full of happiness and light and is the perfect opening gambit for the release to take us on a most worthwhile journey through his music with a loving touch.
Devotion dear reader is up next and is also one of my favourite pieces from the album, it has a very respectful essence about it, and one can feel a sincere intent within the playing. This track written by Dulin says it all, but says it from the most important place of all the heart.
I have reviewed many albums in this genre, but it never ceases to amaze me how each different artist has their own definitive style. Dulin weaves with ease between the Classical and the New Age Piano genre with a simplicity that makes the album so very appealing.
Chanson is track three; it has a soft and gentle melody that makes you feel like holding your loved one and simply dancing with her or him around the room. The style here is so charming one cannot fail to be impressed by the 2
structure of the music. It seems to create an almost lazy Sunday morning feel, with a slight hint of Jazz mixed into its weave.
I can personally relate to this next piece dear reader and listener, for a long while I had suffered from sleepless nights and fretful dreams that came and went like a winter wind that always seems to find a way into the mind and teases it with a melancholy whisper. Through the Night is my track off choice I recommend to you.
The composition is at times sullen and dark, but always offers hope and a new daybreak, this is so brilliantly and touchingly performed I can feel my emotions peaking as I write. This is the soundtrack to help you through the night; this is the soundtrack of a love so warm that their arms simply surround you with the peace and contentment of unconditional love.
After the emotional powerhouse of the last composition, we move back into the realm of daybreak, with a light and cheer filled piece called Walking Joy. Again Dulin hits the musical nail on the head and one can easily imagine walking down a country lane in the summer sun with a loved one to this track.
Dear constant listener, you have walked many miles with me across the many realms of musical bliss, but this is a real treat isn’t it? Michael Dulin plays with a great sensitivity, but is not ashamed to wear his heart on his sleeve, as he does with the next piece called My Treasure.
This track is our half way point marker and is a beautiful rhythmic composition of great clarity and love, a treasure to indeed behold, and one more composition that will fill you dear reader with the every warming glow of bliss and happiness.
She Walks in Beauty for me was the defining moment of the album, a creation dedicated to the power of love and one that I also can once again relate to. I watched my delightful Chrissie singing on stage a few nights 3
back and just revelled in her happiness and the sensuality of this incredible woman, I sense that Michael Dulin is feeling the same thing here as well.
In this piece the listener becomes the watcher and gazes as the music gently portrays a scenic delight of a loved one in a happy moment of contentment and bliss. One can listen to this almost long form track at well over seven minutes and just bask in the glory of that wonderful moment.
The statement that two hearts beat as one is not a fairy-tale, it is not a myth that is constructed of hope and fantasy, it is very real, it is tangible and I, like Michael Dulin am lucky enough to have that privilege to walk this life with the other half of me. The composition you’re listening to right now dear reader is called Two Hearts; it’s played with such reverence and passion that you too will feel the crescendo in your heart pound as one.
I think the boldness of Dulin will capture your respect and harness that resonance of beauty inside you; as you gaze upon your loved one. The piece called Before There Was You is next. Wait! Was there a before you? Was there really anything before you? Here Dulin momentarily explores that time and the style. Whilst reflective at times it is underpinned with a constant answer and his piano and truth gives us a simple statement, there is only now!
We move into the last part of the album and walk right into a composition called As Long As We’re Together. This is a charming track that almost takes me back to my childhood. It has a very simple but effective cheerful melody that builds and pulls back like the tide on the beach, this is such a relaxing and pleasurable piece to listen to I could imagine sitting on our balcony in the sun, just enjoying each other’s company to this piece.
So we finally arrive at the penultimate piece off the album and it is called When I Think of You. Michael Dulin has pulled off some fine performances 4
already but this is sublimely played and has an almost undeniable sense of inner peace written deep within the weave. The energy and resonance here is one of gratitude and the keys are caressed with such a deep respectful intention of contentment.
Dear reader and listener we have arrived at the end of our sojourn with Michael Dulin and as he walks back to his Steinway and calmly lays his hands upon the keys we are given as our parting gift in the guise of a track that simply says it all, it’s called Rhapsody.
Classically inspired, this piece gives us that all-encompassing feeling of oneness and a completeness of heart and mind, and with a happy refrain we end our journey through the works of Michael Dulin and his brand new release entitled My Beloved.
There will be an eager throng of New Age Piano lovers who will be only too happy to indulge themselves with more stunning music, but for lovers of love, for the romantic and the blissfully happy heart, this is an album that will be the perfect Valentines present for your loved one.
My Beloved is played directly from Michael Dulin’s heart and aimed at those of you who are the real lovers of life, happiness and music at its very best.