Review: Rest & Relax with Piano: Music for Rejuvenation of Body & Mind

Finding music to relax to is such an individual choice, which is why we love to share a variety of relaxing new music here on BEING.

This week, the premiere media company, Times Music, released "Rest & Relax with Piano" by Fiona Joy, subtitled Music for Rejuvenation of Body & Mind. While this is the Australian piano phenom's first release with the company, it is a point of interest that Fiona Joy is also featured on the 2015 Grammy-winning album Winds of Samsara, also distributed by Times in India.

Renowned music writer, Vivek Kumar, reviewed the album on 2Indya.com last week, which can be seen here.
 
While the new album is only available in India, one can enjoy sampling all the music & merchandise of Fiona Joy on her official website. Her music is perfect for both "active listening" audiophiles, as well as entertaining, yoga, driving and, of course, relaxing.

What to do in L.A. this Weekend

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 17th @ 3 p.m.

It's not often one enjoys a casual Sunday afternoon concert in L.A. featuring leading international female musicians jamming across genres from Contemporary Piano to New Age, Celtic, and World with a touch of Jazz. You can experience it for a song this weekend (free w/sugg. donation $15), at Hollywood Piano in Burbank, CA.  To reserve seats, email orders@littlehartleymusic.com.au. All ages welcome.

 An Afternoon with Fiona Joy Hawkins 

Special Guests Sapphron Obois on soprano sax, Sherry Finzer on alto flute, and fellow pianist Kori Linae Carothers.  

Review: The Passionate Artists Behind TWO GRAND, I'M YOURS!

 Fiona Joy Hawkins and Trysette kick off Fall 2013 tour with a full-house fundraiser in Raymond, WA.  Catch their next date in Oregon, Trinity Alps, Sutter Creek, Mill Valley, New York, Boston, Denver, Grand Junction, Aspen, Phoenix, Julian or L.A.! 

The two Aussie singer/pianists, Fiona Joy Hawkins and Trysette, are a striking, talented and funny duo that warm up a room with their vast hearts. Trysette had instinctively reached out to Fiona about touring together, after hearing her music online, and a journey was born.  They created Two Grand, I'm Yours! and toured the U.S. in 2012; this year, they're back with a new show and new material, for a series of intimate venues, small theaters and private concerts.  

Both artists have lived full lives, as evidenced in the fluidity and depth of their arrangements and vocals. To make something sound simplistically honest, yet eternally poetic, is a feat only emotion-drenched souls can contribute. To create real art, touching art, one must live, and both artists offer their depths to their audience in spades.

Fiona's ethereal soothing vocals, in harmony with richly melodic beats, cradles the listener into a timeless moment in life, rich with sensual beauty, astounding imagery, and love. Her new album - 600 Years in a Moment - debuted at #2 on ZMR's international radio chart.

Trysette's powerful feminine vocals play with one's heart strings 'til they come undone and one is happily surrendered to the depths of their heart and soul, in a beautiful mess of love.

Fiona was born in Cessnock NSW Australia and raised in both Newcastle and Tamworth, her family home was filled with music. Fiona, "My father played Jesus in the Tamworth Musical Society production of Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber's music was part of our lives." Classically trained as a pianist, her artistry ventures into the visual domain as well, with as much expertise and sentiment.

Fiona's paintings are Chagall-esque and stir up one's imagination with the splendor that Fiona seems to have effortlessly claimed in her tool box. Her love of imagery is apparent also in her song, as one cannot help but feel transported to eloquent, stunning landscapes that are new, comforting and soulful. The two worlds seem to work in harmony for her:

"The idea of synchronicity has always intrigued me, colours, ideas and emotions all have corresponding sounds," said Fiona. "I believe in the power of music as a source of inspiration and a way of reaching people, and I can transfer a musical quality through my art to the canvas."- Fiona

Trysette grew up on the northern rivers of NSW, Australia. Her lyrics are beyond eloquent yet she says, “I'm not sure why I'm able to write lyrics because I don't remember doing so well at English in school. I was just so brokenhearted at the age of 19 over a silly boy that all I could do was pour out my feelings on paper and that's where the song writing began. I'd been classically trained on the piano for many years but without my teacher knowing, I'd play ragtime and pop songs instead of practicing my scales, but this ultimately helped me in the process of learning to write my own songs."

Trysette spent her pre-tour weeks in L.A. recording her next album.  Her previous album, Le Cafe Ancien takes you through the break up of a deep, almost lifelong relationship and into the birth of a new life and the joys and nerves that must come when exploring new love.

“I wrote these songs during a very emotional and life changing period of time and though there are obvious moments of heartbreak and turmoil, the overall feel of the album is light and hopeful with a theme based around moving on and finding a new path” says Trysette.


Two beautifully artistic, intelligent, strong yet sensitive souls. But the wonderful reality revealed at their show is that they are hilarious, and they love making others laugh, too! If you are lucky enough to grab tickets for one of their shows, you will be sure to feel, love, laugh and never forget the night you opened yourself to this spirited, eloquent duo of love, passion, grand pianos,and guarantors of a fiercely good time.

So what are you waiting for? Go to: www.twograndimyours.com for info on dates, tour videos, and more about special Guest Artists Peter Janson, Paul Jensen and Lorrie Sarafin. 

Live Concert Review: TWO GRAND, I'M YOURS

* Featuring Fiona Joy Hawkins and Trysette*

I’d known of Fiona Joy Hawkins’ solo piano work, and stumbled across a series of hysterically wry YouTube videos that she and her concert touring partner, Trysette, produced to help promote their U.S. tour titled Two Grand I'm Yours.  Tickled, I surreptitiously followed the progress of these two dynamic Aussie gals, both indie artists, on their meandering tour of the U.S., wondering how it was they could manage to be on the road for so long.  After all, they’re both gorgeous pianists who compose original music, sing and tell stories; it’s not like they can just throw their guitars over their shoulders and hitchhike cross country Guthrie-style.  There are venues to be booked, piano deliveries to schedule, guest lists to manage, hats to sign...well, more on that later.  Anyway, kudos to them, because apparently they did it pretty much on their own over three months, quite successfully, with good humor, and the kindness of their U.S. concert hosts along the way.

I attended one of the final concerts on the tour, in the greater L.A. area, at the prestigious Thousand Oaks Civic Center.  The show opens with a warm welcome for singer songwriter Karen Nash, clearly a favorite of the locals in the crowd, which includes famed new age musician David Arkenstone.  Previously unknown to me, Nash is an alt-country songstress known for her songs about social justice and troubled love, which she shares with a passionate voice, a guitar, and a touch of edginess. 

Fiona Joy Hawkins

After Nash’s set, Fiona Joy Hawkins enters the stage.  Her stature is striking; she’s a tall, graceful blonde with cheekbones for which she should surely phone home daily to thank her mother.  Upon being seated, even the impressive grand piano looks no match for her. Her reach easily spans its width, and she takes control of it in her opening piece “Moving On” (from Blue Dream, a co-production with WillAckerman), then wrings out of it all the pain of a challenging life with “Contemplating,” which tells her life story and incorporates her Celtic heritage.   Hawkins shares brief stories behind the music, perhaps too brief, leaving the audience wanting to know more, to understand the passion – and often pain – behind her lush, complex and moving pieces. In one telling bit, she explains that her music is often categorized as New Age because it is emotionally driven. “There is no integrity greater than the intention of a single note,” she says. 

Despite all this emotion, one doesn’t feel the need to pity or console her, for Hawkins is not afraid to show her resulting strength.  The primary feeling one gets is solidarity, with her, and her music, capturing and releasing all of our anguish.  She has clearly mastered her coping tools: composing, performing and communing with the piano....and if that doesn’t soothe her, she can always take to the brushes, as she is also an accomplished painter with a gallery full of artwork to show.    After “Love in Winter” (LIVE at the Q) -- part of “Opus for Love” written for her Grandmother who passed away before its conclusion – we’re uplifted by the happier tale of meeting her husband and the resulting piece “The Journey,” which will be on her forthcoming album 600 Years in A Moment (2013).  The set continues with “Freedom/Joy,” “Earthbound” and “Ceremony” which she wrote for her wedding.  I particularly love how she described “Earthbound” as being “about leaving everything you know, everything you own (or thought you owned) and everything you love – and in that process finding yourself.”  Powerful stuff, and thankfully for her, a comment on the past.

Modeling their signed S4TP hats in NYC
with Rhina Valentin of Bronxnet

Post-intermission, the performers join an auctioneer on stage along with Julie Bach, founder for Spa4ThePink to auction off the hats on which the two artists had gathered signatures throughout the tour. The proceeds benefit Spa4ThePink, and signatures included a who’s who of musicians like Bob Malone (John Fogerty's keyboard player), Mike Baird (drummer for everybody including Journey), Denny Seiwell (drummer for Paul McCartney's band Wings), Kenny Aranoff (drummer for everybody, but currently John Fogerty), Randy Ray Mitchell (guitarist for Donna Summer - 30 yrs), Ben Mauro (guitarist for Lionel Richie), Larry Antonino (bass player for Air Supply) and Marty Rifkin (pedal steel player for Bruce Springsteen).

Trysette

When Trysette (nee Trysette Loosemore)  next takes the stage, slim in a white summer dress, she seems downright tiny compared to Hawkins, but any assumptions of vulnerability evaporate as she begins to connect with the audience, all warm voice, sassy red bobbed hair, and witty humor.  Wisely, she opens with a treat, a new piece, “Keep Me Dancing” to be recorded and released in the U.S. in 2013.   Her core is in Pop/Rock, although one somehow gets the feeling she’d make a heck of a jazz chanteuse with her husky vocals and subtle sensuality. 

As she continues through “Already” (Le Cafe Ancien), “Inside My Dreams” (Neutral Bay Sessions), and “Too Much” (Le Cafe Ancien), it becomes apparent how different these two pianists are from one another, and yet totally complementary. With that, an unexpected dimension of the show evolves, and I find myself wishing that young pianists everywhere could witness this show as an example of the broad artistic freedom open to them and their future in music. Trysette sails through the rest of her set, a mix of uptempo pop/rock and introspective ballads that beg for a drive up the coast with the top down. Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan and even a touch of Kate Bush come to mind.  But be warned, after the romance and sensuality in “Sweep Me Off My Feet” (Le Cafe Ancien), “That Face” (Le Cafe Ancien) and a preview of the forthcoming works “Like Water” and “Under My Skin,” you just might feel like falling in love again.

The audience demands an encore, and rightly so.  After Hawkins and Trysette sing “Impossible,” all three artists, joined by Marty Rifkin, perform Trysette’s “Silky Fingers” off Le Cafe Ancien, giving all a sexy, sultry send-off into a warm California night seemingly full of new possibilities for living and loving. 

Trysette and Fiona Joy Hawkins at the Thousand Oaks Civic
Auditorium on their 2012 U.S. Tour: Two Grand I'm Yours.
There is another tour in the works for 2013.