To My Love

There are two very provocative quotes on this debut recording from a 22 year old pianist destined to keep sweeping and melodic new age music popular for a long time to come. Label president Terrence Yallop says he "plays with a verve and sense of adventure of a young Mozart." A music journalist says London "displays a cohesiveness and fluidity that will draw favorable comparisons to Suzanne Ciani and Yanni." Now there's perspective. It's best to let the music speak for itself, and though there is a bit too much reliance on machine-generated percussion, London clearly has a gift for powerful and dramatic, to-the-point pieces that can touch and inspire. Some of the orchestrally enhanced pieces sound like hypnotic film score material. The opening track, "Horizons," combines a easily percussive rhythm track with a high register melody that seems destined to repeat without variation until Ron Jones' soprano sax gets caught up in the midst. "Memories of You" is poignant impressionism with lush synth orchestration. Some tracks are more string-driven (like "Capture the Moment"), while others are driven by whimsical improvisation and percussive invention ("Against the Wind"). Each song attempts to capture a certain emotion of the first love life experience, even though there's very little of the bittersweetness in most of these tracks. Titles like "Our First Kiss" and "Blueprints of the Heart" make it all seem pretty sweet. Even a provocative title like "Land of Fire" is lush, dramatic, and Yanni-esque. It's beautiful music, and apparently the positive tone throughout means London is pretty forgiving.