Jonn Serrie Epiphany

For the uninitiated, Jonn Serrie is an American musician who has written and produced EM, best described as "Space Music" (indeed much of his music has been written to accompany Planetarium shows). The term was almost certainly coined for him and for most of his releases it fits the description perfectly. Down the years he has released some exceptionally fine albums, particularly the Planetary Chronicles Volumes 1 and 2, and my own personal favourite, And The Stars Go With you. He was also jointly responsible, with Gary Stroutsos for the fantastic Hidden World CD, which showed that it is not just his compatriots Steve Roach and Robert Rich who are capable of melding ethnic themes with modern day synth sounds.

Occasionally however it all comes across as sounding rather twee, and romantic, and to my mind this was the problem that befell his 2003 release Lumia Nights. By comparison to that CD however this is so sugary that it should come with its own dental appointment prebooked!

The title of this one gives the game away somewhat, and on the sleeve notes, it describes itself as "Meditations On Sacred Hymns". Nine of the 10 tracks are variations of traditional and it has to be said, overtly religious themes, including the ubiquitous Abide With Me, and Amazing Grace. It is very well done, beautifully played and produced, but at times it veers dangerously close to being muzak. It is also rather one dimensional, and repetitive, and to be honest there is little to distinguish the individual pieces. The one track written by Serrie himself – Light of Thy Countenance is at over 9 minutes the longest piece, and by some distance the best on the CD, as if we needed a reminder of what an excellent musician he is (and no I didn't).