Customer Reviews

Our Time

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Eric has created a masterpiece of keyboard harmonies that reflect the brilliant clarity and simplicity that is usually only found in nature itself. No less than seconds after you turn on this music, you feel calm, free, and hear nothing but your own creative, peaceful thoughts and ideas. Mr. Chapelle inspires us all with a loveliness of sound too beautiful for words. The soft, (but clever) melodies evoke a gentleness heard only and truly with the Heart. This music is a major achievement, bringing joy, lovliness and peace in these modern times. I look forward to his next CD with eager and happy anticipation!!

From the exceptionally beautiful cover art all the way through to the final cut of "Our Time", this debut album by Eric Chapelle evokes one "wow!" after another. It's been awhile since I've been knocked out by the sheer beauty of an album, but this one is amazing. Bordering on "ambient" on many cuts, there is a very strong classical influence in both the instrumentation and the structure of the pieces. Gentle in tone throughout, an uplifting but not sugar-coated mood is created and sustained. All of the pieces are melodic and easily accessible, but not in a pop sense that would encourage you to hum or sing the music. Complex and yet ethereal, the pieces continue to reveal themselves with repeated hearings, allowing the listener to grow inside the music while floating away on a dreamy cloud of soothing piano, flute, and strings (as well as other synthesized sounds). Eric's experience in composing soundtrack music is evident, but this isn't music meant to be in the background. It deserves full attention while coaxing the cares and stresses of the day to evaporate. As I write, I keep pausing to drink in the beauty of this music. It is truly hypnotic.

Four of the cuts are solo piano, and those feel more "grounded" than the cuts with either synth accompaniment or synth orchestrations; the contrast is refreshing. The piano is evident on most of the songs, but this isn't strictly a piano album. Some of the music is about emotional experiences we share ("Our Time", "Reverence", "Trust", "Child's Play", "Rejoice"), and other pieces are more abstract ("Enchanted Rock", "In Flight", "Walking on the Moon", and the stunning "Unconditional Love"). "Fly-Fishing" shimmers like light dancing off the water. Each and every piece is a glistening gem, and I give "Our Time" my highest recommendation!

"Our Time" -- Eric Chapelle Eric offers up tender melodies reflective of the inner landscapes of his soul and the natural landscapes of his beloved Texas on this CD of piano and synthesizer instrumentation. confidence of George Winston and the delicacy, freshness, and poignancy of Robin Spielberg. Fans of peaceful, soothing, relaxing music will revel in these compositions -- favorite tracks include "Making the Shift,"Enchanted Rock," and "Walking on the Moon." This CD has made my Top 20 list since its release and, based on the response of listeners, will continue as a regular feature on my radio show. Eric makes radio work easy! --Valerie Lawe, Celestial Seasonings, KZYX/Z, Mendocino County, C

Listening to the music on this album takes me away on a gossamer wing of flight into a place that is relaxing and soothing. At times the music is haunting and moving, at other times one is transported to another place and time. Where all track of time is lost. There are a few tracks that are my favorites: "Our Time, Unconditional Love, Walking on the Moon and Reverence".

Depending on the mood I am in the music will affect me different ways. Sometimes I find it get very involved and moved by the music, at other times it is just peaceful music to kick back and relax with.

I had the oppurtunity to listen to a number of these pieces played live on a piano and they are even more moving than the CD. They totaly swept me away, as the music washed over me. This one album travels with me all over North America. I switch all the others, but this CD stays with me.

Nice, soothing, stress-relief

Somewhere far away, far from the noisy cities of this crazy world, in the middle of a boundless ocean there is a miraculous place, where pease reigns, where eternal blue sky is reflected in turquoise water, and the sun swims among the foamy clouds, and even the time becomes slower... There, almost at the world's end...

And one desires to get there, to find himself at that beautiful place at least for a moment. And then, being refreshed and cleaned, to plunge back into whirlpool of unsteady world and to venture a great number of fabulous deeds.

Such images are evoked by the works of Eric Chapelle. His album is a music of a deepmost calm and pease. «Our Time» is an alrernative view at our time. Strange, but it can also be such: relaxed and filled by beauty. And the romantic and very melodious compositions of Eric Chapelle are permeated with that beauty. His piano sounds naturally. There is no sugariness or tedium. And the composer easily allows his inspiration to express itself by creating the streams of warm, tender melodies, into which you want to dip, as if it were a warm oceanic water.

«Our Time» is a good example of relaxational music. But it is also something more. This music returns you back to yourself and allows to feel that just this, current moment is beautiful and will never come back. Music of Eric Chapelle is totally in present. And it is perfectly formed.

The music of this album has a subtle fragrance of refinement and aristocratism. It slightly reminds the works of French impressionists. And its mood is bright.

As if you stand on shore and see a white sailer which has appeared far away from the boundless sea and slowly comes closer to you. To where sails that solely ship? Through which seas? To which countries? And to where it will pull in?

His way is far. But its sails hover proudly. Its high masts rise with confidence. Its sides are strong. And the friends wait you there. And one wants to join there, to start the way under that boundless sky, across that boundless water to the miraculous country where Love waits you.

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