Geoffrey’s newest CD, “Anima 91” contain songs and instrumentals he recorded in the 1980’s and 1990’s. With the music there is accompanying art in the Geoffrey has composed pieces about loved ones and world travels The songs are both intimate and organic, with the keyboard action the lasting effect on many of them. ‘Snow Country’ is the exception, as Thomas FitzPatrick lends guitar help. The instrumentals sometimes are weighed by the dullness of old drumbeats and the cut/paste of some sounds. ‘Gong Li’ name-checks the famed Asian actress, seeing her in the beginning of the song as a truly desirable woman, then later as the element of fire amidst Geoffrey’s light meditation on the other 3 basic elements of air, water and earth. Don’t blink while hearing his zen parable that introduces the song and CD ”All moments are components/A series of reactions/In an opening world”. “Snow Country” as does “Gong Li” both shine from its sense of realism in word and music design. I liken the subject’s description of place within Tokyo 1991 in “Snow Country” to the oft-repeated phrase ‘no man is an island’, Geoffrey truly in his zen state of no-man here. Many more surprises follow. Of equal weight are the uncredited drawings lending yet more dimension of word and color to Geoffrey’s songwriters’ palette. All of the drawings are Geoffrey’s and were done in the 1980s and 90s as well. Top pick of the 12 tracks is ‘Kathleen’. Only blemish are the drums that just thud….and doesn’t quite liven up the song, but otherwise a very good 2-verse tune. Also there’s the accompanying scrapbook picture awash in blue-green and black writing in German and English: “I was fooled (x4)/Two to know/Two to show/Two to throw it away” and “There are so many trees in Berlin”. Much to explore in lyric, audio and visual from the multi-instrumentalist Bristol UK native (verified as such by the inclusion of a pic of an old passport)

Dan Hermann/Radio Crystal Blue