Hans Matheson: Living Life in Pure Joy and Celebration

Life is what you make it, she said.
Life is out to take you on.
Take it by the reins, my friend,
Take it while you can.
And don’t you shy from what’s inside of you.
Just go your own way.

This evening for “music night” at The Wild Reed I share a second track from Hans Matheson’s 2019 album, Sail the Sea.

You may recall that I recently shared the music video for “The Sun Is All Around You.” Tonight, it’s the video for Sail the Sea’s opening track, “Take It By the Reins.” And what a wonderful combination of music and visuals this video is. Indeed, as noted elsewhere:

Look at this Human Angel at work, playing with creativity. I already loved the first video, but this one has it all. The magic of simplicity, the essence of life lived in pure joy and celebration. [Hans is] such a gift to this world, as so many have forgotten about the true freedom of being, playing, loving and sharing. Such a gift and timeless treasure!

Floating while splintering wisely, parting sadly.
It’s waiting in the wings,
Count your blessings, a leaf from her book.
I need to see the stars tonight,
Give colours to this fading light..
I need to risk it all again.
All again.

Following is an excerpt from Dave Franklin’s review of Sail the Sea.

Sail The Sea is one of those records that is built around understatement and calm, there is often little more than guitar and vocals building the songs and it is all the better for it. Music doesn’t have to be intricate and weighty when it can get the same job done through deftness and restraint. The old cliche of less is more is certainly at work here but the art of such a route is knowing just which less to use and which more to leave out. It is a skill that Matheson is certainly well versed in and the voids that he creates in the pauses between the lyrics and the spaces between one fading note and the strike of the next creates its own form of atmosphere and anticipation. Instruments in their own right to play an otherworldly counterpoint to the more tangible elements of the music.

As an album it is wonderfully reflective, beautifully spacious and, something we are sorely in need of in modern times, fantastically positive. With all the darkness that there is to dwell on, it is great to come across an album that lets the light in, that is intimate yet relatable and that sees the best in the world around it. What a breath of fresh air! Songs such as “Goodbye” lean toward that Damien Rice blend of vocal lines that are left hanging provocatively, shimmering harmonies and softly brooding cellos, and “Climb All The Way” is as reassuring a sentiment as you are ever going to find to lean on in your moment of need. “She Said She Could” wanders some more jaunty territory, relatively speaking, but still adheres to the same elegance and musical eloquence as the more drifting moments of the album and the title track rounds the whole thing off in a gentled majestic and empowering moment of perfection.

Hans Matheson has created a thing of beauty here and also the perfect reminder that whilst it is easy to make an statement by being bold and bombastic, there is an art to linking such gossamer sounds, such delicacy and drifting ethereality together into something just as impactful. Sail the Sea is a beguiling exercise in that art and a very successful one at that.

– Dave Franklin
Excerpted from "Sail the Sea by Hans Matheson: A Review
Dancing About Architecture
March 30, 2019

Hans’ latest album is The Gospel of Thomas – A Musical Adventure, released in 2021. You can check it out at Hans’ Bandcamp page. For an insightful interview with Hans about the album, click here.

For more of Hans Matheson at The Wild Reed, see:
• Hans the Man
• To the Lighthouse!
• Hans Matheson in The Tudors
• A Devilish Turn
• Stealing Away
• Hans Matheson in The Christmas Candle
• Hans Matheson in 300: Rise of an Empire
• The Gravity of Love
• The Sun Is All Around You

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Joy: The Most Infallible Sign of God’s Presence
• Spring: “Truly the Season for Joy and Hope”
• Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: Quote of the Day – February 8, 2013
• Megan McKenna: Quote of the Day – April 8, 2012
• Nakhane’s Hymn to Freedom

Previously featured musicians at The Wild Reed:
Dusty Springfield | David Bowie | Kate Bush | Maxwell | Buffy Sainte-Marie | Prince | Frank Ocean | Maria Callas | Loreena McKennitt | Rosanne Cash | Petula Clark | Wendy Matthews | Darren Hayes | Jenny Morris | Gil Scott-Heron | Shirley Bassey | Rufus Wainwright | Kiki Dee | Suede | Marianne Faithfull | Dionne Warwick | Seal | Sam Sparro | Wanda Jackson | Engelbert Humperdinck | Pink Floyd | Carl Anderson | The Church | Enrique Iglesias | Yvonne Elliman | Lenny Kravitz | Helen Reddy | Stephen Gately | Judith Durham | Nat King Cole | Emmylou Harris | Bobbie Gentry | Russell Elliot | BØRNS | Hozier | Enigma | Moby (featuring the Banks Brothers) | Cat Stevens | Chrissy Amphlett | Jon Stevens | Nada Surf | Tom Goss (featuring Matt Alber) | Autoheart | Scissor Sisters | Mavis Staples | Claude Chalhoub | Cass Elliot | Duffy | The Cruel Sea | Wall of Voodoo | Loretta Lynn and Jack White | Foo Fighters | 1927 | Kate Ceberano | Tee Set | Joan Baez | Wet, Wet, Wet | Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy | Fleetwood Mac | Jane Clifton | Australian Crawl | Pet Shop Boys | Marty Rhone | Josef Salvat | Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri | Aquilo | The Breeders | Tony Enos | Tupac Shakur | Nakhane Touré | Al Green | Donald Glover/Childish Gambino | Josh Garrels | Stromae | Damiyr Shuford | Vaudou Game | Yotha Yindi and The Treaty Project | Lil Nas X | Daby Touré | Sheku Kanneh-Mason | Susan Boyle | D’Angelo | Little Richard | Black Pumas | Mbemba Diebaté | Judie Tzuke | Seckou Keita | Rahsaan Patterson | Black | Ash Dargan | ABBA | The KLF and Tammy Wynette | Luke James and Samoht