Hervé Avril, Slices of Life

Released on August 18, 2018, Slice of Life is an album matured in the heart of the composer. A collection of emotions.

A piano, instrumental layers, and life. That's what Hervé Avril's album, Slice of Life, is made of. The melodies are simple yet well-crafted. You can feel the mastery in the composition, fueled by an excited and innovative heart. The pieces, resolutely imbued with classical music, follow each other but are not alike. "Joey" starts like a lullaby before coming to life. The structure is quite simple, built on an echo and dialogue system between the piano and string instruments. In contrast, the eponymous track, "Slice of Life," sounds like a film score. Throughout the album, the music lover will recognize inspirations drawn from fugue and rhapsody, while standing out with a personal, sometimes litany-style, touch.

Slice of Life is as much about melodies that stick with you as it is about surprises around every turn. The music, sometimes suspended, resumes with even more vigor and takes us into hidden corners of our personal experience, into our deepest buried memories, and our desires to go further. Joy, sadness, melancholy, and desire merge to bring the music lover into their most hidden corners and reveal a new vision of life. After fumbling around, searching, and taking on the challenge of learning music, Hervé Avril finally reveals himself and offers us the best of his inner life through five songs that are as original as they are recognizable.

 Let’s go Into the Dream World...

French composer Hervé Avril is an atypical artist. Here, he invites us to delve into his poetic, cinematographic, and deeply nostalgic musical universe.

At the heart of the album Slice of Life, a track stands out from the rest and evokes very different emotions for the listener. Our favorite is undoubtedly "Let's Go," which really takes us somewhere. The opening is undeniably contemporary, with electric guitar riffs before the piano enters. Yet the rest is anchored in classical music, almost to the point of jazz. We see ourselves on the road, the landscape passing by at breakneck speed, with a musical background that carries us away. Maybe it's an inner journey? The violins behind the piano, as well as some rhythms on the triangle, are not innocent to this feeling of introspection. "Let's Go" is an invitation, a deepening. We listen to this very well-executed piece, we listen again, we grasp its subtleties, and the melody settles within us, carrying us away even when the music no longer resonates in the speakers. More than just background music, "Let's Go" is a piece to be listened to and appreciated as a whole, stemming from the composer's life. On to a new musical adventure with "Let's Go" from Hervé Avril's latest album, Slice of Life

 Music critic Marc Lambert.