PAULIEN: Press

- Coincidentally, I listened to female jazz vocalist Paulien’s self-titled album on Valentine’s Day and discovered the songs to be about love. The eighth track is even called “Be My Valentine” and repeats the title as a refrain in the song.

The vocals on the first four tracks often sounded low and husky, creating a melancholy feeling. The fifth track, “You Are,” has a bouncier up-tempo and lyrics that express more happiness in romance than the previous songs. The singer tells her lover, “You are all I hoped a love could be.” The happy tone continues in the next two songs, but then becomes sad again, the lyrics in the final two tracks telling of longing and heartbreak after a relationship ends.

If you are looking for a CD that expresses different stages of love, both the good and the bad, then check out Paulien. The album’s jazz music and vocals transport you to a dark and smoky lounge, listening to a female singer accompanied by a few musicians, while you sit at a small table and have a drink, either alone or with a significant other.

Reviewer: Jessica Chung

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Reviewer's Rating: 8.5

May is the month of the nightingale, of songs we love, and of romance. It was on May 4, 2007 that guitarist/composer (and lyricist) Royce Campbell discovered all three in singer Paulien, whom he accompanied at a gig in Charlottesville, Virginia. For more than ten years Campbell had been sitting on a songbook of original, romantic songs; that evening he discovered the voice that would bring it to life.

After being introduced to Campbell’s tunes, Paulien, too, felt an immediate affinity for them. The two spent the next two and half months planning and rehearsing. Recording of the project began on July 23, 2007.

The result is a concept album that could be summarized with Lord Tennyson’s famous quotation: “T’is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” The eleven-tune program begins with the yearning “Someone For Me,” followed by a wistful “I Feel Like We Have Met Before.” The love story that unfolds in these tunes culminates in what may well become a new Valentine’s Day classic, “Be My Valentine.” The last three songs of the album reflect what happens when even the most beautiful of romances turns sad. The final, reflective “Many Loves Ago” expresses Lord Tennyson’s thoughts beautifully and perfectly.

Paulien’s distinctive voice has been well known in Europe since the mid nineties from several recordings she had done mostly in French. One of her albums included a contemporary re-make of the classic song “Dominique”, which became a top ten hit all over Europe and Asia. It led the Japanese charts for six weeks in a row in 1996. On this album, though, Paulien’s vocal style surpasses anything she has done in the past. Free from vocal affectations, straight ahead, and with a deep, clear and honest tone it will stick with you for a long time. In the current jungle of sophomoric YouTube-hyped singers, Paulien truly stands out, because she not only sings these songs, she feels them deeply.

With this album Campbell and Paulien, with the help of Grammy-winning engineer Bob Dawson of Bias Studio in Springfield, Virginia, have produced ultimate musical bliss: Romantic originals that easily fit into the existing American Songbook but also have an international flair that audiences world-wide will easily connect with. The stylish and tasteful contributions of Campbell on guitar, Tony Nalker on piano, Tom Baldwin on bass, and Tony Martucci on drums—all of them seasoned musicians from the Washington, D.C. area—give this album an undeniable appeal.

pdf file February 2008 issue, page 10

Everything about this album smacks of professionalism: a nice cover picture and some useful information about the tunes, the singer and the musicians. Just one minor blemish: it’s very difficult to read the tune titles printed in red against a black background on the back cover and they are not printed elsewhere.

The music is very interesting however. This is an album of very pleasant love songs written by guitarist Royce Campbell and well delivered by singer Paulien. She is not a jazz singer in the classic style, but she delivers a song with accuracy, simplicity, good intonation and great diction. The backing group are very good, providing just the right kind of accompaniment, with some very attractive solos from Tony Nalker and Royce Campbell.

In the sleeve note, Royce Campbell mentions that George and Ira Gershwin preferred Fred Astaire to be the singer who introduced their songs to the public, because he sang the song in the way they had intended it to be sung when they wrote it. Paulien is probably Royce Campbell’s Fred Astaire! The songs are certainly worthy of inclusion in the library of other singers and the quartet is well worthy of its task as an accompanying group.

Don Mather