One World Music Radio Artist In Profile

I have recently had the pleasure of receiving a wonderful review by Steve and Chrissie Sheppard from One World Music Radio for my debut album, Lost in Love. Take a read of their review below: 

There comes into everyone’s life now and then, an unbridled beauty of musical mastery, this time it is in the form of a vocal album entitled Lost in Love by Natasha Hardy. 

The sensitive texture of her voice is illuminated by a single of hers, and the opening track off the album entitled In Too Deep, beautiful string work weaves a wonderful pastiche of tenderness of Hardy’s vocals, and mixed with a delicate multi-instrumental collective. 

Mi Ritiro has a mysterious quality about it that I personally found fascinating, perhaps it was the hovering ethereal qualities of Stefano Marzanni’s piano; regardless Hardy’s performance was as if she was singing to the angels herself, this is one of the most powerful offerings I have heard for quite some time. 

Tempest In My Heart was quite special in many ways, the smooth approach to her vocals on this piece were sublime. The energies of this track were immensely appealing, a textured offering that contains a build and progression to be truly proud of. One must add that the violin of Dermot Crehan is spot on in creating a cinematic mood; this would be one of my personal favourites from the album. 

However, when we reach a track called Take Me Home, we find something that is so emotive, it is hard not to allow yourself to be moved by the song that is about to unfold. The composition of the piece is so artistically creative and so emotionally imploring, and Hardy’s voice raises the rhythms and pulls back with utter perfection. 

A fine melody and a beautiful song is next, and one can certainly see why this was released as a single, this is like Enya but warmer, and entitled Enter the Gate. The chorus is appealing and layered to perfection in the most beautiful of ways; I think two words sum up this song perfectly, Idyllic and charming. 

The half way marker is breached once we arrive at a piece called Crossing the Highway. The piano, and actually all the instrumentation performed by Michael A Levine, is sublime, and a mood filled creation of delicacy in tone, thus it creates a wonderfully open canvas with which Hardy can present this beautiful song to the world; haunting yes, but in a wonderfully warm method of presentation. 

Il Segreto has a fluency that is simply inspired, there is a sense of tone here that is rich in texture, but pristine in quality, please also note the wondrous performance on Cello by Alice Sophie. The layered new age mood here also has a slight global ethic to its manifestation, hats off also to the artistic segment on piano by Marzanni, who creates a symbiotic performance here with Hardy. 

The feeling of this album is certainly idyllic, and certain tracks can literally take you to the source of the composition, such can be said about Tales of the Alhambra, I had strangely been playing another track with a similar name, and about the same place moments ago, there is a lively energy that is tempered by a lush and colourful narrative here, one that contains harp and some rather powerful percussion, kudos to Anna Quiroga and Tom E Morrison for that. 

Our penultimate piece is named Beautiful Chaos; the performance here by Hardy is so powerful that it could bring tears from the eyes of an angel with ease. The elevation of this song and the smoothness of presentation really made this piece for me, one of the best tracks from the album, and one that really moved me utterly.  

Our last track is called Strong, something we have all needed to be recently, the lyrics here are wonderfully empowering and very poignant, and it is a track that could also make a good rock song if a guitar was added to the engine room of the percussion. Well, what can one say, simply the best way entirely to leave an album of this crafted quality. 

Lost In Love by Natasha Hardy is a unique album, each track is crafted with such a wonderfully fluent skill set of sublime vocal constructions, and a rich tapestry of multi-instrumentation. Here is a release that has clearly been created from the heart and soul of the artist, and no stone, no emotion has been left unturned in the making of this collection of great songs. 

For me personally it’s unique, as this is the first time, I have written a review from someone born in the same county in the UK as myself, bizarre I know, but the voting from the Hertfordshire jury is a huge big 10. 

Date: 22/07/2021

Interviewer: Steve and Chrissie Sheppard

Interviewee: Natasha Hardy

Radio Station: One World Music Radio