Don Macdonald - Shifting Sands (2021)

Canadian musician Don McDonald (b. 1966) lives in Nelson, British Columbia. He is best known as a composer who writes film music and choral music. He has many successes and prestigious awards in this field. Don sings professionally, and as an instrumentalist prefers primarily the violin, but also plays the saxophone. During his career, he has performed music of a variety of styles.
What does he offer listeners in the album Shifting Sands, which will be released at the very beginning of 2022? First of all, we note that MacDonald managed to assemble a very strong team for this project. For example, pianist Dave Restivo is a three–time winner of the national award "pianist of the Year", and guitarist Mike Rad is the winner of the Juneau Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy). Next, you need to pay attention to a very original sound: Don brings instruments such as violin and mandolin to the forefront. He plays the violin himself, and the mandolin parts are performed by Jason Anik and Dylan Ferris. The combination is not unique, but very, very rare.
All nine tracks of the album were composed by McDonald himself. If we talk about the style of Shifting Sands, then it can be estimated approximately as neo-fusion. Groove reigns in almost every track, but the color changes depending on the composition, for example, Bayou makes you remember bluegrass music, and Latin motifs are heard in La Tormenta. At the same time, in any track, the color is served softly, on semitones, which, in combination with the leading violin and (or) mandolin, makes the album's music non-standard and very pleasant. It is impossible not to appreciate MacDonald's skill as a violinist: his solo parts are very emotional and technically flawless. For me personally, the peak of the album was the composition Dali's Hourglass with an excellent dialogue of violin and piano, but I think a potential listener here has a wide field for choice: I just didn't hear something frankly weak and not interesting in this album.