Sean Street / Neil Campbell / Perri Alleyne-Hughes - 2017 - Estuary

(49:53; Sean Street / Neil Campbell)

Track list:
1. Change 1:41
2. Vigil 2:00
3. Shipping Forecast, Donegal 2:26
4. Fog Redux 5:12
5. Another Place 3:15
6. Pier Head with Ferry 1:03
7. Tidal 1:52
8. Vigil Redux 3:10
9. Storm Blind 4:36
10. Estuary 1:13
11. Fog Music 5:14
12. Sestina 3:38
13. Sestina (Part 2) 4:59
14. Naming 0:58
15. Tidal Redux 2:29
16. Shipping Movements 1:57
17. Epilogue 4:10

Line-up:
Seen Street - voice
Perri Alleyne-Hughes - vocals
Neil Campbell - guitars, keyboards, soundscapes
Marty Snape - electronics


Prolusion.
While the album credits kicks off by stating that this album has been made as a collaboration between three different artists, which is factually correct in many ways, I believe this creation makes more sense if it is seen as a Neil Campbell solo album featuring distinguished and important guests. The musical landscapes explored are all Campbell I believe, while Street is the creator of the lyrics as well as being the voice of the landscapes explored here alongside Alleyne-Hughes. The name of this album is "Estuary", and it was self released by Sean Street and Neil Campbell back in 2017.

Analysis.
This is one of those albums that probably has more of a loose connection to the progressive rock universe, where the primary reason for the album being reviewed at a progressive rock website being that Campbell have released other solo albums with a closer connection to the progressive rock universe as such. While the landscapes explored on this album come with properties that makes this one easily recognizable by anyone that have encountered other albums Neil Campbell have released, it is also a creation that comes with its own very specific aspects and dimensions.

The most important bit here is that this is an album experience that revolves around poetry. The words written by Sean Street is the element that gets highlighted here, in part through Street's own recital of his words, with a lived in and experienced voice that sounds like he is a person that has seen it all but also manages to combine the slightly weary voice of one that isn't surprised by anything any longer but with the emotional resonances of someone that can still be amazed and pleased about what life can give you. His spoken words are complemented by the vocals of Perri Alleyne-Hughes, whose role is a bit more limited to a selection of songs, but whose presence adds an element of variation and a different dimension to the landscapes explored here that elevate and expand the boundaries of the total experience here.

The music is what makes this album an extraordinary experience. Campbell is an elegant musician that has the acoustic guitar as his speciality, and executes his notes with a deft hand and with a style and orientation that indicates that he knows his classical guitar rather well. Gentle but pace-filled note combinations and slower paced plucked notes that make use of reverberations alternate here, but with a more liberal use of the former than the latter, and often in movements that are just as much circulating in patterns as following direct scale movements. Campbell is good at shifting between delivering dominant notes and seguing over to a gentler supporting role when required, and he also supplies a liberal amount of often subtle additional elements here, ranging from nature sounds and atmospheric laden keyboard details to elegant and effective percussion details and beyond. With Marty Snape contributing to the atmospheric laden effects in a manner as subtle and elegant as everything else on this creation.

All the individual parts that forms the songs and recitals on this album are of a high and solid quality, and fairly often the sum of the parts combines into an elevated state too. As will often be the case when the quality level is high throughout. Mix, production and mastering are of an equal quality to the content they have been applied too, and as long as this music is within your general field of interest I think it is safe to state that this is a creation that comes without any noticeable weak points.

Conclusion.
While this may not be an album that will come with all that many points of reference with a direct appeal to fans of progressive rock, those with an interest and fascination for the acoustic guitar will find a lot to enjoy here. The combination of classical oriented acoustic guitar, spoken word poetry and a liberal array of additional instrument details executed with the same elegance and sophistication as the acoustic guitar, spoken words and vocals will be quite the alluring experience for the right audience with the right mind set. This is a creation of beauty and elegance, like so many other albums in Campbell's catalogue.

Olav "Progmessor" Björnsen, August 2023

Links:
https://neilcampbell.org.uk/
http://www.seanstreet.com/