Guy Renardeau – Four Shades of Blue
Independent
9 tracks – 31 minutes
Dutch musician Guy Renardeau is a multi-award-winning composer for film, television including commercials, and games. He obtained his master’s degree in composition, orchestral arrangement, sound design, piano and guitar from the Hochschule fur Musik in Kohn Germany, the Conservatory in Amsterdam, and film research at the University of Chichester England. He is currently based in Los Angeles. In addition to his work in the film industry, he works across the musical genres blending his interests in all styles of music including an album of ambient piano music, Snow White (described as Hip Hop meets orchestra), rock, and now blues. He has toured alongside many notable performers including Omar Dykes and Snowy White. He performs all the instruments on this album.
He is joined on this album by three female singers, Glenda Benevides, Class Vee, and Malaysian vocalist Lyia Meta. Each performs on songs on which they wrote the lyrics.
The opening track, “Last Tuesday”, a smooth, jazzy bluesy number delivered by a Lyia in a deep, smokey vocal with Guy’s easy guitar sliding along with a mild drum beat. She tells, “I wore my best dress last Tuesday, but you said you were leaving”. “They say all hurt will pass someday. Now that you left me, been gone so long, now I wear my black dress all day long.” She continues with another soft, soulful cry as she cites “You came like a whisper to a broken sky that was silver” “I changed your life through the longest night, but the stars fell with you out of sight. Still ” I Breathe Your Name” in the winds whence you came.” Class Vee takes the lead on “Make My Day”, a slightly more upbeat R&B number in which she advises ” I feel safe with you”. “You treat me like a queen.”
Guy’s guitar is featured on the aptly named instrumental, “Sexy Groove”. Glenda takes the vocal lead as she tells him “You Don’t Know Me” “still you cast your blame. Why are laboring me? Don’t know my name. Ignorance is king, oh damage is done.” Lyia returns on “You Make Me Feel” with lyrics by Guy. She advises, ” I don’t know how you’re feeling. I don’t know when you’re leaving. If the sun never comes out, if tonight doesn’t work out, we’ll still have the afternoon.”
“Four Shades of Blue” is another easy listening Instrumental with Guy’s guitar shining in the spotlight and his piano lingering in the background. That is followed by “The Touch of the Blues”, another instrumental with Guy taking a much jazzier approach on his guitar with a full array of instruments behind it perhaps showing his cinematic side. The album concludes with Glenda featured on “Wicked”. She explains, ” I got up this morning, couldn’t even get out my door. Something coming around, something I ain’t seen before. It’s rained five days and the sky is dark and black”. “My hands won’t stop shaking as a shadow crawls across my door.” ” I can’t take it much more”.
The album is a comforting light jazz and blues mixed with the powerful, rich voices of all three singers. Guy’s guitar keeps a slow groove burning in every song, sometimes raising in slight intensity but always presenting a quiet, calming effect. The drums are openly present in several songs, but for the most part, the instrumentation other than the guitar is subdued. It all feels like a nice glass of wine or a warm evening drink is appropriate while listening to the music.
