Four Pieces (Land of Oz Music, 2012)
Four Pieces is an instrumental album by skilled rock and blues guitarist Cailyn Lloyd who is better known artistically as simply Cailyn. It takes the American guitarist in a new direction, combining classical musical with rock and blues, therefore entering the realm of symphonic progressive rock.
Although Cailyn is best known as a guitarist, she plays several other instruments. On Four Pieces she plays bass, keyboards and electronic drum kit.
“The idea for Four Pieces was born many years ago, soon after I heard the New World Symphony by Antonin Dvorak for the first time,” says Cailyn. “It was powerful, compelling music and I wanted to turn it into rock music.”
Four Pieces contains four pieces, three classical adaptions and one original composition. First is ‘Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis,’a work for string orchestra by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, inspired by the English Renaissance. Immediately, Cailyn shows her guitar playing skill and creativity, performing a tasty series of guitar overdubs.
‘Largo’ recreates the second movement of The Symphony No. 9 in E Minor “From the New World”, better known as the New World Symphony, by Antonín Dvořák. Cailyn plays splendid blues-infused guitar solos, along with other guitar layers that are reminiscent of the ultimate symphonic rock band, The Enid.
The third cut is Adagio for Strings, a composition by Samuel Barber, arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11. It is probably the most familiar classical piece in the album, frequently used in movies and TV scores. It’s a slow tempo bittersweet piece, full of emotion, with beautiful wailing guitars.
Four Pieces ends with the original work ‘Nocturne,’ composed by Cailyn. It has a really fine set of overdubbed climactic guitar solos. Sometimes she rocks out, but it’s in a tasteful manner, without drowning the guitar with the dreaded hard rock riffs. “This piece arose entirely from the single guitar motif that enters just after the rhythm guitar opening,” explains Cailyn. “The idea was to write a piano-like nocturne for two guitars that would emulate the right and left hands. This simple idea was not enough for me, so I added voices in each successive segment, culminating in the four part counterpoint towards the end of the piece. I originally closed Nocturne with the double time segment but it felt wrong there and I almost discarded it before deciding to place it in the middle as a kind of “Trio”.”
Four Pieces is a beautifully crafted symphonic rock album that deserves more attention from the progressive rock community.
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