One of the biggest secrets that makes the art of music being so special, is that of associating sounds with memories, like a special moment lived somewhere in the world, perhaps watching a live concert, or spending a wonderful holiday somewhere with a partner and/or friend, or meeting new people, trying new flavours and the list goes on and on.
That is pretty much what happened to the Taiwan-born Jazz pianist and composer Eric Pan a few years ago just before the pandemic, when coming back home from a colossal journey across four continents, while sampling the history, traditions and cultures of dozens of country visited throughout this mammouthian journey.
With something like 30 new pieces inspired by all the countries the artist visited, pieces composed during all the travelling, Pan wished to create a sort of musical Opus Magnum that would reflect exactly all those profound memories the composer lived in a life-changing, gargantuan adventure and his feelings related to it.
In that respect, no better and more apt album title could have been chosen by Pan for this spectacular triple album than Travel Poems, a pure, genuine and honest musical expression of love released by Pan gradually, through time, with the first volume of the trilogy released in 2020 and called "Chapter 1. Secret Towns", the second in 2022 called "Chapter 2. The Night Sea" and the last, just released together with the previous two discs, called "Chapter 3. There Is No Path Back".
There are good reasons, behind Pan's choice to release each of the "Chapters" one per time; the pianist and composer's main aim was to give enough justice to each of his travelling memories, translating them in the best and most authentic way possible into a mash-up of urban and/or natural sosoundscapes, which would include the sound of church bells, the movement of the sea or snippets of incomprehensible verbal dialogues among local people together with genial flashes of Contemporary Jazz, Classical and, occasionally, even Fusion, where Pan let his talent and improvisational skills fly really high.
A breathtaking, inspired, original and highly imaginative project created by an artist like Eric Pan that manages, through the power of a project like Travel Poems, to stimulate the listeners on any possible level, engaging them with sonic and natural sounds, taking them on a sort of Aladdin's Magic Flying Carpet journey, where a music lover is able to traverse the skies of the world through the sound of Pan's iano. A genial, heartwarming modern masterpiece.
Travel Poems is out now and can be purchased via the website https://travelpoems.com/
