This year, Pauline Frechette released a full-length project, a collection of 8 songs that both capture the essence of her musicality and offer a consistently elegant and ambient playlist – one that promises to create an extended atmospheric experience for audiences far and wide.
Follow My Heart (Remastered 2018) starts things off in a thoughtful and smooth manner, taking a slightly minimalist approach to expression and letting Pauline’s voice and the progression of the melody guide the way. Following this, Love In The Afternoon (Remastered 2018) Feat. Stanley Clarke comes through with a slightly brighter ambience and a more multi-layered set-up that makes for an uplifting development. There’s plenty of color here, the melody has a sense of optimism and joy about it, and the crisp sound and capture of the moment reflects this well.
Always Lovers (Remastered 2018) is a song that teeters quite dramatically between the darkness and the light. There’s an intriguing aura about the opening verse, the notes chosen, the whispered nature of the performance, and then later on, a bright and content energy replaces these and creates a moment of peak happiness. The same system of change later repeats, utilizing structure to build around its audience an all-immersive story-line – complete with rising emotions and levels of passion that are likely to connect in a genuine way with those who have shared similar experiences. This song features one of the more memorable instances of melodic and instrumental evolution of all.
Song For Michael (Remastered 2018) is really well placed within the project. This piano-driven journey through life adds a whole new layer of artistry to the album and gives listeners that lyric-free space; within which their own minds can form the outer edges of the story. La Bohème des premiers jours (Remastered 2018) comes afterwards and presents a beautifully interwoven arena of strings and piano, with a gorgeously seductive leading voice offering up the central sentiment and ideas by means of a perfectly delicate variation in language. Arrangement is important and this project takes that into consideration as it plays out for you.
A Quiet Walk In The Snow is another of Pauline Frechette’s most recognizable works. The instrumental layers here seem to lightly echo each other in a striking and captivating way. It’s a short experience but so easy to listen to a few times over in one sitting.
Come Away With Me (Remastered 2018) is a song with a distinctly performance-central vibe – that theatrical element of delivery drives the lyrics and melody along in a way that has you holding closely to their development, quietly anticipating each step and each change. After the detail and poetry of this, Follow My Heart (Remastered 2018) [feat. Stewart Cole] adds a final few moments of variety and eclecticism. This added touch of smooth jazz creates a totally new ambiance that allows you to escape to some other place entirely as the music surrounds you. In this instance, the thickness and character of the double bass meanders in a compelling way alongside of the additional instrumental drive. It feels all at once familiar and new, taking elements you know, and fusing them with something creatively fresh yet equally still completely in tune with the very essence of the music.
To listen back through the entire album once more is to appreciate the clever intricacies and growing emotions of each moment in a slightly different way. Once you’ve taken on the collection in full, it appears thereafter in a much more accessible and calming way – like revisiting a well-known favorite playlist or film. The lyric-driven version of Follow My Heart seems like a totally different piece of music in that it presents the central ideas in a literal manner. The instrumental version is driven more freely, allowing you that room once again to see where the music takes you without the influence of language. In both instances, the music works beautifully. Pauline’s voice fits so naturally within these soundscapes that it appears as simply another element, another instrument of delivery and expression. These songs that have been chosen for the album make perfect sense as a collection and it’s an easy pleasure to embrace this as a listener.