Album Reviews: Goldmund – All Will Prosper
Keith Kenniff is a man of many faces. He is most widely known as the musician behind the curtain of Helios, an ambient project of his. When he’s not making music in such a style, he steps down to his second moniker, Goldmund. This is a completely different beast on its own, tending to resemble a more piano-on-reverb orientation. With his latest release using the latter surname, he has taken great influence in the Civil War. All Will Prosper, released on Western Vinyl, is a modest collection of pre-reconstruction era folk songs, sans-vocals. That means “Amazing Grace” without any “that saved a wretch like me.” Said album has interestingly been a work in progress, taking Kenniff five years of here-and-there recording to reach completion.
Listen to “All Will Prosper Teaser”
The Pros:
Even counting Goldmund’s sole original composition to the bunch, “Ashoken Farewell,” these are all very simplistic tunes and don’t require much out of Kenniff in order to give the song life and recognition. Minimalism is synonymous with beauty on this release. The empty room noise produced by the various recording locations throughout the years blows a cold, withering wind to these ballads and odes of the past. Music so crystal clear and note for note recalls an intimacy that is very rare now. The expression might be cliche, but if you listen to All Will Prosper in the appropriate setting, it really feels like you are in the same room as Kenniff. Every detail is pronounced, you can hear the clacks of the piano keys hitting the wood panel and the curt shriek of fingers sliding to different chord positions on guitar strings.
Apart from the excellently hushed and commanding production, (or lack thereof), Goldmund also does well on his part to provide adequate piano and acoustic guitar arrangements of classic Civil War melodies like “Battle Cry Of Freedom” and “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” This album is truly an inspired work, and Kenniff pays his best respect to each song by contributing his own personal flavor, while maintaining its essence.
The Cons:
Fifteen tracks. What you do not think on before listening, is that you will be sitting through fifteen tracks featuring battle hymns and verses as interpreted by a piano and guitar. In other words, it gets incredibly boring after the first few. This album took me to a place, not too far away from where I am now. I journeyed back to an uncomfortable church pew, surrounded by kids much younger than me. I’m back in high school, and I am living out the last few piano recitals that I will ever have to sit through. If you listeners have ever had the happening of observing one of these, you know exactly where I’m coming from. They are bland, monotonous events. One after another, adolescents rise up to the ivories and hurry through a piece or two that they were semi-required to learn. A lot of these are basic tunes that many know by heart or can at least hum to themselves.
All Will Prosper is very much like taking part in a piano recital. Pop this LP in, and you will feel much like I did in the past; waiting impatiently for the lengthy litany of boring, plainly recognizable songs to be over with so that you can exit to the back room for cookies and punch. Except there is no cookies and punch in this instance. The only reward in store for you after listening to Goldmund’s latest record is that you have an above average sense of endurance.
The Verdict:
Mr. Kenniff offers up a sweet and sentimental tribute to the anthems that once were meant to uplift and mourn for our nation. The problem with All Will Prosper isn’t one of age though. Rather than sounding dated, Goldmund mistakes subtlety for flatness. There is no creative arc on this record. From the desolate luminescence of “The Death Of General Wolfe” to the very same attributes of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” no effort is ever made to shake things up. I admire Keith’s love for Civil War history, but his attempt at commemorating its spirit via musical release can be described only as repetitive and unyielding.
