“I cannot stress enough how talented this man is – you could almost hate him for being this good if it wasn’t for his gentle mannerisms and warm sensibilities”

“an intimate evening of exquisite music played with the kind of understated charm that makes a real connection between performer and audience”

I came across Peter Cox’s music blog via a Yahoo egroup which I’m a member of which probably deserves a blog post in itself as its a valuable musicians resource – its a place where muso’s across the world hang out to exchange ideas and tips and music chat called Music Thoughts – and theyre a really friendly bunch of people.

Your Music Blog is a new enterprise and well worth checking out, particularly for rock music which is Peter’s own specialty (he’s in established rock group Chinawhite).

He’s given Valentine Court an interesting review too.  He starts with some kind words about the music and then goes on to do what many reviewers shy away from and gives some interesting critical feedback.  He suggests that I might consider experimenting with some pieces with fewer notes in the future, or putting it the other way around, with more silence and space.

This I found an interesting comment – composer/pianists I enjoy such as Satie (as Peter states) and also Ludovico Einaudi are able to produce much simpler and sparser arrangements than I and I wonder if this is partly me compensating for a lack of confidence by keeping things busy.  Or perhaps to put it another way, one’s music reflects one’s state of mind and to date I’ve had to work quite hard (in a way) to achieve space in my mind and I think thats reflected in my music – there are moments of relative stillness – particularly in the climax of Jewel and Namaste, but these tend to be hard won, coming as the result of a build up towards that moment.

Mind you, Satie was an absolute master of tonality and Einaudi has a remarkable ear for melody, so perhaps the relative simplicity they sometimes achieve is hung on those particular gifts.

One of the many musical ideas I have saved on my digital piano is a very still and simple piece with only two chords, so perhaps I will be exploring that territory more in the future.  Time will tell of course, but in the meantime, thought provoking comments from Peter.

My first gig for top Birmingham music promoters Capsule was a great pleasure yesterday.

For my set, I was a little taken aback at first by how quiet the audience were – very attentive and polite.  Probably because it was in a pub – albeit in the venue room of what is certainly one of Birmingham’s very bext music pubs – I suppose I expected it to be more lively – but actually the gentle mood suited the line up very well.

If the Capsule ladies ask me back, I may well with what was my first thought for this gig – since attendees at a Capsule gig are likely to be fairly seriously into music -  and take the chance to do a fully instrumental set, but instead I played what is currently my established set for acoustic nights and such – mostly my songs, with just a couple of my instrumentals.

Next Up – Friendly Fire built on the chilled mood, with moments of intensity and neat combination of modern, geekdom and classic 70s American folk rock.

Finally Phosphorescent took the stage – not totally at their ease for several songs, perhaps in part due to having travelled down from Glasgow in the day and arriving a bit late – but their relationship with the crowd progressed as the night went on.   Some superb musicianship was on display from all six members, comprising piano, soulful lead guitar, beautiful and haunting pedal steel as well as bass, drums and rhythm.

The sound was amazing – a great PA in there with Bartram ably and assuredly handling the controls as always.

Here’s a good review of the show, with pics by Katya Ogrin (one of which Ive borrowed for this post) over on brumlive.com

Ive received a great albumn review today from the good guys of Bearded Magazine. In case you dont know Bearded already, these guys are very passionate supporters of independent music – well worth checking out in there current online incarnation.

Some highlights from the review by Simon Harper include:

“Quietly building melody and atmosphere, Batsford appears to excel at gently shaping moods and it’s with the beautifully haunting ‘Namaste’ which the album really comes into its own, mining a seam of melancholy which unites the most arresting tracks here.”

“winding repeated melody patterns into heartbreaking shapes, packing an emotive punch”

and finally “frequently thrilling … this is a marvellous introduction.”

Please read the whole review here and if you have a minute, do peruse the rest of Bearded’s lovely new site.
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I recently sent a copy of my album Valentine Court to a lady in the US called Rebecca Johnson, who writes regularly on a website called Seasoned with Love.  She is also a key player in the growing army of people with an interest in music, books etc who contribute to our growing global cultural wealth my regularly reviewing music on Amazon.

Its very hard for indie artists to get coverage in papers and magazines, so its very important both for the artists themselves and all those who are interested in discovering new art that might appeal, that people like Rebecca give their time and make their voices heard.

Rebecca’s certainly been hard at work, writing no less than 3,795 reviews on Amazon so far, placing her as one of Amazon’s  “Top 10  Reviewers”.

So what did Rebecca make of my magnum opus?  Happily, she has entitled her review Exquisite and Magical and goes on to write:

“Rich Batsford has created a relaxing and at times a profoundly beautiful moment in time for the listener. His timing is impeccable and his melodies are original and compelling. The entire time I was listening to this stunning album I felt a sense of happiness.

“Valentine Court” also awakens delicate emotions that enliven the soul. Rich Batsford seems to be completely absorbed in the moment as he plays. His music also has meditative qualities at times and can awaken the heart to beauty. If you love solo piano then this should be in your collection.”

Rather a wonderful review – I found it quite moving in fact – it means a lot to get this kind of comment and Im proud of Rebecca and everyone else getting on Amazon to make some critical comments which in her case at least, are undoubtedly seasoned with a little love.
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