What does Barry Hudson-Taylor sound like?

Intimate piano pieces to balm the soul and temper the mind.

The review of ‘Flutter’ by Barry Hudson-Taylor

UK-based pianist Barry Hudson-Taylor returns after his 2023 debut ‘Kalmte’ with a suite of piano pieces that focus on reflective, warm, and intricately intimate instrumentals. Barry was inspired by personal moments over the last few years, which chart his passage from loss and grief to a place of healing. As expected, an intimately personal piano takes centre stage. As also expected, Hudson-Taylor ensures minimalist doesn’t sound dull.

‘Ascent’ opens the album showcases an ethereal whisper-touch of sound that evokes a feeling of suspension. The piano is light and awash with ambient glows and hues that sound fragile and intricate. It’s sparse in an intentional way, as if each refrain is slipping through your fingertips. It’s achingly beautiful and sets up the warmth of ‘Echoes’ that follows. Here, the in-room piano and its percussive felt hammers provide the first layer of echo, but hiding underneath is another tiny, distant piano melody twinkling in the background. The lead piano is wholesome enough, yet the added undercurrent brings additional depth and texture.

The title track follows in meditative fashion. Barry keeps a repetitive, gentle flutter of notes and a gentler aftertouch hue in full flow. Ebb and flow is the main focus here, like allowing a piano to gently sway in the ocean, as it drifts away with gentle, rhythmic lapping. That unassuming approach to creative melody making takes a fuller form with ‘Rolling Hills’. These two tracks feel like sisters. The former is leaving home, whereas ‘Rolling Hills’ is heading towards it. They are both quietly uplifting in their own way, and both feel assured and reassuring for the listener by their closure. That’s not something ‘Afterlight’ can provide. This twilight haunting is absolutely note, pitch, and sentiment perfect. Barry Hudson-Taylor leaves space for bars of music to hang out and sink into your mind, leaving you melancholic and yearning for a hug. It’s a personal highlight, and I could have that track on repeat and shed a tear happily.

As with most tracks titled ‘Home’, we venture into the gentlest southern blues with uplifting notes and a subtle hip sway. The entire album has reverb ambience and textures, and here it’s as much about the piano hammers as it is the warm hues. It’s the modern-classical equivalent of a home-cooked meal. ‘Evenfall’ is deftly pitched with a melody that could suit early 20th-century European classical piano. Just when you think the melody is about to lift you up, it turns tail towards a curious or questioning downbeat. Barry describes the release as taking place within “the fragile in-between spaces” of sadness and joy. ‘Eventfall’ walks that entire line and back again. The album closes with ‘Shelter’. Initially pensive, the track slowly gathers a pitter-patter of momentum like tiny forest animals setting up a cosy bunker for the winter. It’s slightly childlike, a bit playful, and a slowburn wholesome smile to round off our journey.

I’m going to directly quote the marketing material for this review, because rarely has a description been so accurate. This is a “collection that is as much about tone and atmosphere as it is about melody and structure”. Barry Hudson-Taylor gives space for each refrain and longtail reverb to shimmer long enough to leave its emotional mark on you, before drifting you off with its ebb and flow into another devastatingly beautiful moment. The space between pain and healing is a tough one. This album can provide respite and reflection to help you through. Beautiful.

Recommended track: Afterlight

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