Music has been used for countless reasons, to worship God, to express love and even just to simply create new ideas of sound. The music for this album was originally commissioned by choreographer and dancer Joanie Block for a production titled Under the Canopy, to express her emotions over the death of not only her own husband, but that of Ken Field who also experienced the loss of a loved one, his wife. The musical journey here, produced and performed on all instruments by Field, is an elegiac mosaic of sounds and emotions.
Field’s clarinet is warm and clear over some soft Latin percussion on “The Serving” and teams well when puffing with the sax on “Laevinic Defeat”. A choir of reeds sound like water lilies on the enchanting impressionistic “Mirror” with the tones having an Ellingtonian elegance on the Old World toned “Darkness Into Night”. Velvet textures waft on “Day By Day” and gentle flutes float over marimbas on a static pulsed “Culture”. The album sends off messages of reflection, mixing unanswered questions with hope. Isn’t that what we all have?