Natural affinity Geoffrey Poole's music is tracked and enjoyed by BASIL RAMSEY Metier    MSV CD92061

Provided a composer anxious for representative works on a single CD chooses in consultation with others, the result can be fruitful for both composer and listeners tempted in the market place by whatever combination of inponderables come together. Nonetheless, the whole enterprise could be a minefield given the market factors that mostly ignore promise and crave the latest musical package with a juicy sales appeal. It is to the smaller companies that we usually turn for courageous forays beyond the spotlights.

Geoffrey Poole, for the uninitiated, is an English composer of excellence with a varied list of works demonstrating his ideas and ways of creating music that is fruitful to the ear, and a professional challenge for performers of the right calibre [listen -- track 2, 5:40-6:44]. With a record that fulfils such a promise, Poole ought to prosper (at least musically) and find growing interest from a larger sector of the market. I like his precision in detail that builds to an identifiable 'sound' as the record progresses through four works. This is one of Poole's stylistic traits, but others of no less significance are persistent and mould themselves into the soundscape.

The strength of this music lies in the cohesion of each work, present because an artist knows how to balance and blend the elements. As Geoffrey Poole has a natural affinity with the piano I take it to be his instrument, as heard on track 1 [listen -- 8:25-9:25].

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Record Box is Music & Vision's regular Wednesday series of shorter CD reviews