RICHARD SEARLES
The Green Man
(c) & (p) 2001 Earth Dance Music
www.earthdancemusic.com
15tks/52mins

A yellowish moonlight is reflected in a nigrescent mirror-like surface of the river which fell asleep into dreams. A black forest with its huge branches hangs over the road spinning along a meandering riverbed. Far off stone bulks of an impregnable castle tower high. And nothing is heard in this peace and quiet but cries alone let out by owls and some mysterious night birds and nothing is seen but distant flickering fires on the walls of a formidable fortress. And a lone horseman galloping to it along a narrow forest road. Everything is imbued with expectation and anxiety. What news does this messenger convey? Maybe, he is in a hurry to let inhabitants know that brigands intend to win the castle by assault? Or, maybe, this is a noble knight who is in a hurry to his fair lady on the way from a long crusade? Where and with whom will he meet the dawn? What will be tomorrow? Everything is hidden under the cover of the night and only a strong and fresh odor of a lurking forest impels to stop and dive into its fascinating coolness. But the adamant horseman bends over his horse's back, putting spurs to his horse's sides and rushing towards his Fortune…

So many things got mixed up together in Richard Searles' music: anxiety and conciliation, sincerity of emotional experience and unfeigned romanticism. His guitar is very expressive, as for accompanying instruments: bagpipes, concertina, string quartet, tabla, percussion, acoustic bass and harpsichord among them, they make the album's music extraordinary beautiful and something like universal by sounding. It is rather complicated to specify it when naming it a Celtic, medieval or modern instrumental music. It possesses all this and even more than this that is hiding behind the sounds, bursting through chords of Richard Searles' singing guitar. It is the music composed by a person who is able to sense the rhythm of this planet and to give to it something that makes the life on it better. This " something" is indeed Richard Searles' music: simple, very real in expression itself and yet immensely optimistic in its essence.

The music of " The Green Man" album is satiated with fragrance of conifer needles and forest flowers. It is exceedingly fresh and actual. It is music of a new age when olden days revive and start to exist in the present not suppressing it and not trying to adjust it to itself.

It is time when stones start talking. It is an epoch when the rhythm of life and its energy can be sensed and controlled. It is time for emotions to be released and for intellect to be realized. The new age and Richard Searles' music are inseparable they call us to follow them.

What further pictures will this music conjure up? Once you switch this music on you start on your journey. And maybe there where you first turn off the path you will come across the ghost of the green forest. He ought to tell you something… He has been sleeping so long… He has been looking forward to you here for such a long time…

Serge Kozlovsky
mail: serge_kozlovsky@tut.by
web site: http://sergekozlovsky.com

P.S. Translated by Tatyana L. Permyakova.