Bernward Koch - Touched by Love (2016)

Touched By Love is the eighth album from German pianist/composer Bernward Koch on the Real Music label. The album contains fifteen selections from Koch’s previous releases plus two new pieces - a whopping seventeen tracks and 75 minutes of blissful music! There are four tracks from Walking Through Clouds (2006), two each from Journey to the Heart (1999), Gentle Spirit (2009), Silent Star (2011), Day of Life (2013), and Remembering (2015), and one from Flowing (1997), Koch’s Real Music debut. His music has also been included on many of Real Music’s compilation albums. Koch’s signature sound is distinctive and his music has become a mainstay in the new age music genre as well as on the Real Music label. It tends to be very gentle and dreamy and lends itself beautifully to relaxation, spas, meditation, quiet life moments, and anytime you want music that is soothing and uplifting. Koch is best-known as a pianist and keyboard player, but he also appears on this album playing synthesizer, guitar, bass guitar, cymbals, claves, gongs, and glockenspiel. His wife, Christiane Boehm appears regularly playing flute - also part of Koch’s distinctive sound - and his brother, Christoph plays 12-string guitar, percussion, and drums.

Koch is a classically-trained musician and because his music is so peaceful and easy to listen to, his albums flow effortlessly from one song to the next without any jarring transitions. If you are looking for an hour and a quarter of musical heaven, Touched By Love is a sure thing.

The first of the two new pieces is “Memories of a Cherry Tree.” The sublimely simple keyboard/piano melody comes from the heart, enhanced by washes of strings and sparkling bells. Poignant and bittersweet, this is sure to become a Bernward Koch classic. The second new piece, “Hope,” is equally affecting and is somewhat more orchestrated. Delicate and gently-flowing, the soulful piano/keyboard melody floats above the strings and other instrumentation. Sigh… If you already have all of Bernward Koch’s earlier albums, at least check out these two compositions!

Tracklist:

01. Walking through Clouds
02. Touched by Love
03. Long Way Home
04. Back to Myself
05. Memories of a Cherry Tree
06. Softly Awakening
07. Simply Great
08. The Enchanted Path
09. A Time Ago
10. Bekoflow
11. Ever Returning
12. Hope
13. Floating Feather
14. The Blue Light
15. Distant Memories
16. Little Moritz
17. Remembering