by Dean Wolfe, Prog dog Media [album released September 13, 2019]
I fall to sleep to this instrumental CD quite often. Normally that might not count as a vote of excellence, but seeing as I work lots of midnight shifts that's a very good thing.
It has 3 tracks and the second is my favourite at 24 minutes. The first track at 28 minutes is more swirly ethereal while track 2 is more drone-ish with more textures in the lower registers.
If you're new to ambient guitar music you might be surprised at how un-guitar-like it sounds. Often the artist is volume-sweeping and 'swelling' so that the actual 'attack' sounds of the pick on strings is not featured. Instead you get long stretched out loops of almost any variety of keyboard-like tones and swashes.
Jeff is a long-time ambient guitarist based out of Indiana and has been releasing albums since 1993. Allmusic calls him "one of the top two electronic guitarists of all time".
Prog dog Score: Rating ambient albums like this is difficult because they vary so much in approach and result and can be interpreted very differently from listener to listener. We settled on 3 1/2 out of 5 bones. As long as you're looking for an album that doesn't vary, divert or jolt you- and you seek a consistent sleep-accompanying (or work accompanying) musical and melodic ambience, you should enjoy this album by one of the greats.
