Witness – The Life of Christ – Miguel De La Wiest (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Instrumental music is, by its very nature, a more expressive form of communication than mere words. Where music that relies on lyrics to tell its story takes its listeners by the hand and leads everyone to the same conclusion, instrumental music moves in more subtle ways, evoking feelings, jogging memories, drawing out emotions, and doing so differently for each person it affects. If lyrics tend to broadcast the same message to everyone who listens, instrumental music can have a different conversation with everyone it meets.

And that is why the form that Miguel De La Wiest chooses for the majority of his Witness – Life of Christ is perfect, allowing the music to work much in the way that the subject’s teachings do, being both universal and intimate at the same time.

The album blends all manner of sounds and styles; “Carpenter’s Boy” kicks things off on a delicate wave of acoustic guitar and cascading pianos. Electric guitars help build sonic weight but never so much that the song feels too tightly tethered to the human world, retaining a space and serenity perfect for the themes the album delivers.

“Fishers of Men” brings flutes into the array to create a floating, folky finesse, and like much of the music found here, echoes a sort of classical Spanish vibe, but not so much that its contemporary nature is lost.

With “Saying Goodbye,” vocals are added to the mix, the lyrics advocating leaving your old life behind as new doors open for you, and the song scaling some anthemic heights, the vocals powered on by some spiraling electric crescendos.

But this bigger sound is balanced by the most delicate of responses elsewhere, particularly “Father, Forgive Me” again, a celebration of acoustic guitar dexterity with the most sublime and understated electric sounds threading through.

Devotional music is a tricky thing to get right. Of course it is music perfectly suited to those who already follow such a path, but it is also the perfect sound to take gently out into the world at large and make people ask questions, not least of themselves. The hard sell doesn’t work, so why not give them something to think about and let them come to their own conclusions?

And that is exactly what an album like this is so good at. It is not only a celebration of Christ’s life, but it is, for the most part, so open to interpretation, based on feelings as much as thought, that anyone who hears it, anyone who understands it, anyone who engages with it is already a step closer to the source that they were before the needle dropped on the record.