Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There are times in art when an original piece, already lauded for its perspective, its place in time, finds its true value when recognised as part of a larger picture, that a song, an instrumental which captivated an audience suddenly finds a home as part of a continual, substantial profusion rhythm, not just a moment placed into the world, not even part of a key where a couple of movements come together, it is an expression of wider purpose, of a full exposure to the soul and the beauty that is revealed.

To have this sense of the perpetual, of interlocking tracks from a series of mini albums and an E.P. and find a sensitivity of emotion to combine them into one overwhelming double album is to reach so deeply within and find more than a soul, it is to find genius.

In this, Liverpool’s Neil Campbell succeeds and does so with intense modesty, a collection of songs that become Diagonals: An Anthology (2020-2026) is a gathering of sound, an acoustic journey through recent time and how it exposes the artist in a way that a single album could not justify.

Taken from Diagonals, Journey Into Space, Berlin Suite & Other Short Stories and Forest Dwellers, time is very much of the essence, and the voyage is of upmost importance, the accompanying music is the trail into which the listener finds the solace and the heartbeat into which the musician, as well as the expertly divine cello of Nicole Collarbone in her performances in the tracks Berlin Suite, Hoobie Tango, and Ode To A Penguin, thrives in abundance.

To join together pieces of music from what could be considered altering aural messages into a seamless quantity of delight, of intrigue and evolving mystery, and it is one that truly master’s the idea of entertainment and passion as a magical passage through realised art, through life.

Diagonals: An Anthology (2020-2026) is glorious, it is honest, it is the channelling of a union of sound, and it is pleasure to behold.

Ian D. Hall