A New Kind of Love marks Robin’s return to creating the kind of music for which she is most famous: melodic soundtracks for her life’s journey. Exploring friendships, world beauty, the passage of time and the transition of seasons, the CD is an intimate listening experience bound to resonate with Spielberg’s legions of fans as well as those new to her music.
SONG LIST: (Listen to a preview of any of the songs on iTunes)
- I Remember Spring
- A Walk Between the Raindrops
- Until You Come Home
- The Orange Fox Waits
- This Busy Life
- Hymn
- My Memory
- Picking Flowers
- A New Kind of Love
- Starlight
- Seeing You Seeing Me
- Winter Sonata (Gyeoeul Yeonga)
- I Dream of You
- Eileen
- It’s All Just as Well
VIDEO: “The Making of A New Kind of Love” – in the studio with Robin
Reviews:
“I am in love with Robin’s wonderfully comforting piano artistry, & have been for many years now… we have reviewed many of her CD’s, and listened to her spirit mature most pleasantly!… It only takes a few bars to capture your imagination and bring your dreams to life. Some of her previous efforts covered other artists, but this album features all originals, which is why (I believe) it captured my ears so easily. I was most impressed by the track titled “Seeing You Seeing Me”, which feels like a story about friends I’ve known across the decades. Those listeners who love soft/gentle and clearly expressed talent will agree when I declare this CD MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED” -Dick Metcalf, Improvijazzation
“Her music is, to say the least, enthralling. This is deep, down personal music… Nothing flighty here, just gut wrenching emotion that voices what your heart has been wanted to say forever. Inside the music there is unrequited love, love very much lost and the celebration of love. Robin Spielberg does on this album what she does best. She converts everyday love into musical terms that we can all understand. Finding friends, losing friends, discovering love and having it torn from our hearts is recognized and defined. This is music for the heart pure and simple. Now that I have heard this one, I am going to have to find the other fourteen albums. I should have kept up.” -RJ Lannan for NewAgeReporter
“Robin Spielberg IS the heart and soul of interpretive solo piano. It is a privilege and intense pleasure to review this work. Bravo Robin! I plan on working my way through her 15 CDs…it will be an adventure in piano bliss.” -Spiritworks.net
“For those of you not familiar with Robin’s music, here’s a quick tour of her personality: pianist, composer,actress, storyteller, wife, gardener, cat lover, sister, devoted mother, devoted daughter, and world’s best friend (mine). Spielberg works all of these elements into A New Kind of Love, resulting in a recording that any woman with a modern life will relate to and admire.
“A New Kind of Love” is Robin’s best recording to date. Her playing has matured beautifully, and she’s confident enough to hold back, which bumps her music to a new level. Even the faster pieces have a lilt to them that makes them unhurried, yet purposeful.
The Steinway sound is lovely–particularly in the upper register, the echo and ringing of the notes support her unique style of playing. The soothing tone of the piano makes it perfect background music, but do yourself a favor and take the time to really listen–the rewards are plentiful.
I very much enjoyed “Until You Come Home,” not just the performance, but the composition as well. “A Walk Between the Raindrops” captures the mood of the story Spielberg tells in her well-written liner notes. The syncopated long tones interrupt the rolling eighth notes and–like a lull in a rainstorm–they feel just right.
Robin knows what her songs are about–read her stories and you’ll understand the many sources of her music. She did a lovely job choosing her titles: “Hymn” is indeed a hymn. “Picking Flowers” sounds like picking flowers. “Starlight” sounds like starlight. I listened to these pieces, glanced at the titles, and said OF COURSE.
Here’s the most important thing: As I was listening this morning I felt an overwhelming sense of power in what Robin Spielberg has accomplished. She reminds me that human beings are capable of creating beautiful, bold, and artistic moments, that even in the face of a million obstacles, if we choose to express ourselves honestly, we can. This seems to me to be the most moving thing in the whole world. ” -Robin Goldsby, the solo piano artist featured on “Songs from the Castle” and “Twilight.” Her book Piano Girl: A Memoir features a chapter on Robin Spielberg.
Spielberg’s playing features her putting plenty of emotion into her melodies… restrained but impressive technique…beautiful music. -Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
Spielberg delivers the goods with a richly warm solo piano outing that takes her already welcome style to the next level of the game. Very quietly, she’s a ready sold a ton of records and this friendly collection is sure to keep the streak alive. Fans of simply beautiful music are sure to enjoy this collection. – Midwest Record Review
Once again solo pianist Robin Spielberg delivers a collection of lovely and soothing melodies that tell the stories of life, love, family and friendship. Thirteen original instrumental pieces and two Korean melodies are gently performed by Spielberg on a Steinway piano. Her accompanying notes on the story behind each piece make listening even more enjoyable. Sweet and soothing, A New Kind of Love plays like a lullaby. –New Age Retailer
A New Kind of Love is Robin Spielberg’s first release of new original material in eight years, and it was definitely worth the wait! With fifteen albums to her credit, Spielberg has matured gracefully both as an artist and as a woman who has experienced vast ups and downs in her life and has expressed many of them via her music. Spielberg has been one of my favorite artists since we first bumped into each other on the internet sometime around 1995, and I do believe this is her best album to date. Anyone who has seen Spielberg perform in concert knows that the stories behind her music are almost as big a part of the concert as the music itself, giving insight into the individual pieces as well as into the artist herself – truly a human being like the rest of us with a family, a garden, pets, love, pain, joy, memories, and all that makes up a life well-lived. Spielberg’s liner notes also tell the stories behind the music, and although they are much briefer than the stories told live, they offer vivid pictures of how the music was inspired. AND, Spielberg is an amazing pianist who puts heart and soul into her music, communicating a wide range of emotions to the listener. Most of the CD is on the quiet side, allowing it to be in the background, but this is music that needs to be savored again and again to be fully appreciated.
All of the pieces are excellent, but I have some favorites. “A Walk Between The Raindrops” comes from a charming recollection of wondering as a child why her father never got wet on rainy days. His reply to her was that he just walked between the raindrops and that he’d show her how one day, creating many mysterious images. The music is fluid and graceful and yet suggests the falling of raindrops. “The Orange Fox Waits” is a tender love song for a beloved family cat who sadly passed away the day after the song was recorded. “This Busy Life” reminds me a bit of one of my other favorites of Spielberg’s pieces, “The Nature of Time.” Full of the energy of a fast-paced life, it also exudes joy and exhilaration rather than stress. A calm interlude in the middle tells of the peace of sitting at the piano, letting everything else go for a time. This should become a Spielberg classic! Robin has done several concert tours in Korea, and has included two popular Korean tunes that have her own special treatment. “Picking Flowers” is another classic Spielberg piece. If you know anything about Spielberg, you know that she absolutely loves her garden. This little piece spills over with joy and sunshine. The title track is about being comfortable being alone and also about the camaraderie of friends. Thoughtful and introspective, it’s a gorgeous piece. “Seeing You Seeing Me” is a loving tribute to a longtime best friend who is always there, no matter what. The CD closes with “It’s All Just As Well,” a piece I adore. It’s a bluesy piece that tells of acceptance and letting go of past dreams and ambitions, and is a great close to a great album. Brava, Robin!
I’m sure A New Kind of Love is going to be garnering a lot of attention, so pick up a copy and ENJOY! -Kathy Parsons for mainlypiano.com
On this album, Spielberg once again spins a web of rich melodies, evoking mostly the softer emotions (although she lets loose now and then). Never truly somber or melancholic in nature, the music flows with warmth, nostalgia, and her now trademark romantic sound, her standout musical trait as a solo pianist. Her music is never sappy or saccharine-laced and seldom if ever cliché; face it, the woman flat out composes and plays darn pretty music.
The opening” I Remember Spring” is a jaunty affair, lively with just a hint of reflection at times in the upper register. It’s a brief (2:14) and spirited kick off to the fifteen track CD. “A Walk Between the Raindrops” represents the artist at her best, painting a spot-on musical “picture” through expressive playing that carefully blends elements of minimalism with her more usual flowing approach. The sparse repeated notes at the outset bring to mind the titular raindrops perfectly and her soft work on the keys themselves maintains a lighter mood without an abundant use of minor key notes or chords. Unless I’m mistaken, I also detect a subtle Asian influence on this track. Spielberg has toured Korea and perhaps the country’s musical culture has infiltrated into her composing.
The CD features extensive liner notes in which the artist reveals inspirations for certain songs, many of which are linked to family and friends, e.g. “Until You Come Home” is about waiting for her daughter to arrive on the school bus. Almost a mini-suite of sorts, the song starts out light-hearted and fast and then moves into a more pensive passage, gradually building some drama before the reemergence of the opening cheerier refrain, I imagine signifying her daughter’s smiling face beaming from the open school bus door. This Busy Life features some of Spielberg’s most dramatic playing – she really gives the ivories a pounding! Also, there is an uncharacteristic darkness here, juxtaposed with the fast tempo and loudness of the playing itself. Picking Flowers, another brief piece, might at first seem almost precious (meaning, in this case, “..affectedly dainty or over-refined..”) but, to be honest, if there’s one thing Robin Spielberg isn’t, it’s insincere. After all, picking flowers is a fun-filled light-hearted thing to do, so the music should fit that mood, right? The title track, stretched over eight minutes, demonstrates Spielberg’s introspective side, as she wends through several different phases of the song, all of them on the gentle reflective side. The two Korean pieces (“My Memory,” and “Winter Sonata”) are rich, warm flowing numbers with (surprisingly) little discernible Asian flavor. I prefer the former (more romantic) of the two, although truthfully, neither are as memorable as the artist’s originals. Closing out the CD is a special treat as Spielberg takes a rare walk on the bluesy side with the slow-paced but barroom rag-inflected (It’s All Just As Well. I’d sure love to hear her expand her palette more as she does on this tune. Nice choice to end the album, too!
A New Kind of Love offers more than enough evidence that Robin Spielberg’s artistic gifts are like a certain rabbit character used to sell batteries. She just keeps on going and going and going.. and that’s great news for lovers of warm, melodic romantic solo piano music. Solidly recommended. -Bill Binkelman, New Age Reporter