In 2022, fifteen years after releasing his debut album Impromptu – Solo Piano, composer/musician Neil Patton’s artful blend of faith and music reached an exciting crescendo when Holy Ground, an album of heartfelt hymn improvisations, won Christian Album of the Year at Solopiano.com. For the former worship pastor of 27 years, it was and ironic accolade in light of the fact that the project was originally intended as a gift to dear friends whose teenage son was battling cancer. He recorded its 12 tracks at night, with one or two takes each, making the recordings available to them and to those who were praying for them. With the family’s blessing he released the album publicly.
Though Patton’s magnificent and inspiring, melodically compelling and rhythmically diverse follow-up The Small Hours doesn’t feature songs directly about God, it’s the latest manifestation of his belief that everything he creates is sacred music to him. “I believe that we were all created in the image of God,” he says. “J.R.R. Tolkien describes us as ‘sub-creators,’ made in the image of the Master Creator. I like that and it resonates as true. Everything we do can be an act of worship, from painting and composing to working a desk job to repairing cars. How we develop and use our gifts and talents can reflect glory back to the original Creator and allows us to walk in God’s presence moment by moment.”
The oft quoted passage of Psalm 46:10 (“Be Still and know that I am God”) come to mind as listen intently to the grandeur that is The Small Hours, which finds the adventurous pianist running the gamut, as he says, “from joy to mourning, introspection to dancing,” bookending the fascinating nocturnal adventure with “Days End” and “Daybreak,” two pieces that are soulful, and gently meditative, but with fanciful elements of joy and hope amidst the darkness.
Choosing to limit the dynamic ranges of these pieces, and showcase less “flash” than on earlier projects, Patton committed himself to improvising at night when the world was quiet and he could hear God’s still small voice, a through-line of divine connection that helped shape the overall mood and concept for the project.
“I wanted to paint pictures of many of the things we all experience at night, not just the positives,” he says. “So there are pieces about happy dreams, and others for those waiting by hospital beds, songs about love and reflections on grief, guilt and insomnia – everything from stargazing to remembrances of those who have passed on.”
Unlike many artists in the genre who choose song titles that allow listeners to use their imagination regarding their intent, Patton is very intentional in the intricacy of his narrative storytelling. After vowing to share his heart on the graceful, free-flowing (often via notes that seem to be dancing with delight) ‘We Will Tell The Stories,” he follows the innocent, sweetly charming “Goodnight, Daddy” (about tucking his kids into bed when they were little) with the stark, haunting “Good to See You Again,” a meditation on the dreams he has where he got to see his own father, years after he passed away.
Along those lines he artfully contrasts the depths of great sorrow (the dark ballads “The Grief That Lies Down Beside Me” and “A Room With A View”) and the pure joy of living that can come from choosing, with God’s help, to overcome the darkness – expressed beautifully on the spritely “The Moon and Sun Dance” and soaring, hope-filled “Above the Treetops,” inspired by dreams of flight filled with childlike wonder about leaving behind the cynicism of the world. While Patton sees all of his compositions here as prayers without words, he is most upfront about feeling a humbling spirit in the presence of the Lord on “A Prayer in the Darkness.”
“I like the intimacy of the sound, both in the recording and in the compositions,” he says. “I once said that if you listen to this album, you will know me better by the end of it. I also hope that listeners might take the time to truly sit and listen all the way through the album. Surrounding the individual stories of the pieces, there is a longer story being told from beginning to end. Overall, I hope and pray that listeners will find comfort and hope as they listen. I often write my music as therapy for myself. I have already heard from several people that this music has brought comfort and healing, and that has been so encouraging. Knowing that this music has moved on from just helping me, and that it is now helping others, makes it worth all this extra effort to get it out to the world.”
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