MUSIC REVIEW BY Thierry De Clemensat, Paris Move
Expressive Jazz Meets Timeless Animation
Owen Chen is one of those quietly understated artists whose work carries a profound poetry that is immediately accessible yet remarkably intricate. A composer and guitarist, Chen's music mirrors his personality: introspective, precise, and deeply expressive. While traces of Asian influence appear throughout his compositions, they never dominate, unlike the work of fellow musician Nguyen Le, who places his cultural heritage front and center. Chen instead weaves together threads of jazz, classical music, and world music, demonstrating mastery over multiple instruments and delivering surprises at every turn. His guitar work, in particular, is meticulously crafted, expressive, and strikingly refined.
His latest album features his two guitar band, Eternal Wind, that reimagines the timeless stories of anime Studio Ghibli through the expressive lens of modern jazz. The album emerged from a year of performances at Brooklyn's Red Pavilion and was honed through Chen's long-standing collaboration with guitarist Andrew Cheng. Together, they channel the emotional gravitas, tenderness, and wonder of Joe Hisaishi's iconic scores into a deeply personal improvisational language.
Chen's artistic sensibility is closely tied to his instrumental choices. He imbues his arrangements with distinctive textures, allowing for subtle dialogues between the instruments. Supporting him is a cohort of promising young New York jazz musicians whose contributions shift fluidly between lyricism and audacity. The arrangements honor the original works while leaving room for spontaneity and discovery, creating an album that feels both reverent and adventurous. For Chen, Eternal Wind reflects the experience of an Asian-American artist synthesizing formative influences to craft a voice uniquely his own.
Perhaps the album's most striking feature is its compositional architecture. The pieces pull listeners immediately into a contemporary jazz landscape, revealing Chen's talent as an arranger for whom music is a storytelling medium. There is a cinematic quality to his work, as he paints landscapes and characters with his approach to melodies, offering listeners not just music, but immersive worlds. It is deeply expressive music, one that invites listeners to explore its textures, or perhaps to accept that its power lies not in mystery but in evocative imagery and nostalgia. Tracks like "A Town With an Ocean View" (From Kiki's Delivery Service) reveal subtle European influences, while others sparkle with playful improvisation, keeping the listener continually engaged.
Albums of this caliber inevitably set high expectations for what comes next. Following a romantic and enigmatic project such as The Ghibli Collection, listeners will naturally anticipate more, a challenge that Chen seems more than ready to meet.
Owen Chen is, without question, an artist worthy of urgent discovery. His originality ensures that audiences will want to share his work, both for its poetic subtlety and its technical mastery. While European listeners may not find the album surprising, in the United States it carries a distinctly exotic and refreshing charm, a testament to Chen's ability to bridge cultures while creating a sound entirely his own. 4-STARS
Owen Chen is one of those quietly understated artists whose work carries a profound poetry that is immediately accessible yet remarkably intricate. A composer and guitarist, Chen's music mirrors his personality: introspective, precise, and deeply expressive. While traces of Asian influence appear throughout his compositions, they never dominate, unlike the work of fellow musician Nguyen Le, who places his cultural heritage front and center. Chen instead weaves together threads of jazz, classical music, and world music, demonstrating mastery over multiple instruments and delivering surprises at every turn. His guitar work, in particular, is meticulously crafted, expressive, and strikingly refined.
His latest album features his two guitar band, Eternal Wind, that reimagines the timeless stories of anime Studio Ghibli through the expressive lens of modern jazz. The album emerged from a year of performances at Brooklyn's Red Pavilion and was honed through Chen's long-standing collaboration with guitarist Andrew Cheng. Together, they channel the emotional gravitas, tenderness, and wonder of Joe Hisaishi's iconic scores into a deeply personal improvisational language.
Chen's artistic sensibility is closely tied to his instrumental choices. He imbues his arrangements with distinctive textures, allowing for subtle dialogues between the instruments. Supporting him is a cohort of promising young New York jazz musicians whose contributions shift fluidly between lyricism and audacity. The arrangements honor the original works while leaving room for spontaneity and discovery, creating an album that feels both reverent and adventurous. For Chen, Eternal Wind reflects the experience of an Asian-American artist synthesizing formative influences to craft a voice uniquely his own.
Perhaps the album's most striking feature is its compositional architecture. The pieces pull listeners immediately into a contemporary jazz landscape, revealing Chen's talent as an arranger for whom music is a storytelling medium. There is a cinematic quality to his work, as he paints landscapes and characters with his approach to melodies, offering listeners not just music, but immersive worlds. It is deeply expressive music, one that invites listeners to explore its textures, or perhaps to accept that its power lies not in mystery but in evocative imagery and nostalgia. Tracks like "A Town With an Ocean View" (From Kiki's Delivery Service) reveal subtle European influences, while others sparkle with playful improvisation, keeping the listener continually engaged.
Albums of this caliber inevitably set high expectations for what comes next. Following a romantic and enigmatic project such as The Ghibli Collection, listeners will naturally anticipate more, a challenge that Chen seems more than ready to meet.
Owen Chen is, without question, an artist worthy of urgent discovery. His originality ensures that audiences will want to share his work, both for its poetic subtlety and its technical mastery. While European listeners may not find the album surprising, in the United States it carries a distinctly exotic and refreshing charm, a testament to Chen's ability to bridge cultures while creating a sound entirely his own. 4-STARS