Rick Stokes
Process of Illumination
 

It's seven years since Rick's debut recording appeared - an original-sounding worship disc that had a feeling of spontaneously capturing something of God's presence. 'Process of Illumination' is in a sense a musical progression from that, as the New Zealand singer/songwriter moves on to more performance-based songs, thus allowing the extent of his musical creativity to be better realised. This is a true "collection" in that songs were composed over a span of 16 years, with hardly any two originating in the same year! With interesting story-in-song lyrics that contain not a hint of the cliched, Rick truly catches the imagination, especially by conveying images of nature, such as mountains, birds, sea and caves, with which habitat Rick clearly feels a God-inspired affinity - this shows up too in his inspiring sleeve photos. Though 'Keep on Walking' is a funky slice of old fashioned rock'n'roll (with delightful bv's), and 'TV Land' is a quirky, tongue-in-cheek 'protest song' against our love of 'the box', the main musical style here is piano- or acoustic guitar-based ballad, in which Stokes weaves his thoughtful way with sensitivity and spiritual direction.  I especially love the nostalgic ponderance of 'Playground', and the delicate keyboard and vocal tones on 'Ships'. References to the Divine are inferred rather than overtly posited; though on the closing 'You remain', Rick can't resist a short gentle refrain of personal adoration.  Relevant to particular themes, a host of additional tools are deftly employed, including saxophone, violin, cello and  Hammond . All come together to form a rich mix of appealing sounds and observations. A fine album indeed.

 Tom Lennie 

Writer/researcher living in Edinburgh , Scotland