Douglas Macgregor – Songs of Loss and Healing
Self Released – Out Now
Douglas MacGregor’s heartfelt Songs of Loss and Healing project began when he was seven years old with the tragic and untimely death of his mother but, due to potentially damaging grief repression, it wasn’t until he was in his thirties that his situation became apparent and his healing process really began. Music has been a key part of Douglas’s life since his mother bought him a small classical guitar when he was seven, his last gift from her, and has also been a crucial part of this healing process. The seven pieces of music that Songs of Loss and Healing consists of were originally recorded and filmed in seven different locations as part of a musical series, which can still be viewed, but for this album, Douglas wanted a higher sound quality, while maintaining the spirit of the initial recordings, and so brought in Sebastian Ohmert, who apparently took a bus from Berlin with his recording equipment to Frome Hall in Somerset.
An accomplished writer and composer, for Songs of Loss and Healing specifically, Douglas studied the cross-cultural role of music in grieving rituals around the world, before calcifying his research into seven solo instrumental nylon string guitar pieces. The story of the album is beautiful and touching in itself but the music that is in a way a distillation of Douglas’s experiences of a situation and his journey through it is truly special. Even out of context, Songs is a rich and deeply focused solo guitar album, exploring many moods and emotions through assured and intricate playing on a single instrument, an admirable and bold decision in itself. Douglas’s ability to shift mood is apparent in opening track ‘The Well and the Flood’ at about the halfway point, when his thumb finds the bass string and lets a deep piano-like note run through the melody. A simple touch maybe, but one that changes the depth and feel of the song.
The piano can be almost detected many times through the set; there is certainly a singular romantic beauty to the nylon strings that can almost become mercurial. ‘The Pathway’ plays out like a piano song that transforms into guitar halfway in, when more notes are played on the higher strings. A more serious piece than this lovely meandering shot of freedom is ‘The Stowaway’, which uses more of those bottom strings to create a sound akin to the cello in places, lending the song a more sombre nature. The higher notes here are edgier than other examples and, although a shorter track, it is particularly intriguing and gorgeous to listen to. A gentler song is ‘Grasping the Wind’, where Douglas plays in a lighter style to evoke spring weather and innocence. The playing is exemplary, as it is throughout, but the delicacy here is crucial in harnessing a feeling of vitality and youth, something that becomes more apparent in the second half of the album, perhaps mirroring Douglas’s own journey. ‘New Beginnings’ continues this and ends the album with an ultimate sense of optimism among some more ambiguous notes. The playing gathers pace as the song develops, but by the end, the mood is one of positive energy.
The often subtle art of instrumental music is a fascinating discussion and there are many (including me) that believe it is the most powerful way to express emotion and feeling through music. As listeners, we are asked to more closely and intimately interpret these sounds and it quickly becomes a very personal experience. For me, when the music is performed solo, the effect is even more compelling in that there is at once a bare rawness in the music that is the most honest expression, and a subtlety that is hard to come by in other forms. When listening to an album like Songs of Loss and Healing, we are being invited to engage in our own musical journey, but we cannot fail to also remain closely connected to the experiences of Douglas, which he so beautifully expresses throughout the recording.
Order Songs of Loss and Healing via Bandcamp.
https://www.douglasmacgregormusic.com/