ECHO

This is what I would say about UK composer Matt Stevens, whose music is based in acoustic guitar. His compositions are very original, well-structured and designed to catch everyone's attention, he caught mine since the first time I ever listened to his music, he really knows how to use that acoustic guitar and how to express with it. Back in 2008 he released his album entitled "Echo", which consists of ten compositions that make a total time of 33 minutes, so as you see, all of them are short tracks, but with high quality.

"Burning Bandstands" is the first song here which curiously happens to be the longest one, the only one that passes the four minutes length. Since the first moments we can appreciate Stevens' style and feel attracted by the sound, which is calm, charming, promising and enjoyable. "Airships" has that inherent Spanish feeling, here also can notice that he also uses the guitar as a percussion instrument by delicately hitting at its body. It is great to listen to different guitars used as back and foreground.

"Drama in the Coals" follows the same path as the previous one, actually I would say the sound is pretty alike in most of the tracks, which does not necessarily means it is repetitive, I actually would say this is Stevens' style and that's it. "Flies in the Basement" is one of my favorite tracks, with an Andalusian style, mixed with some kind of jazzy tone, reminding me a bit of Paco de Lucìa or Al di Meola. Wonderful track.

"Snow part 3" is a shorter track, and with a different style, a more melancholic sound, even sad and disarming at the same time, like a moment of reflection. With "Chasing the Sun" the music returns as the style we are used to. Nice acoustic guitar harmonies, cool repetitive background and an always constant and interesting foreground.

The name of Rodrigo y Gabriela also came to my mind while listening to some Stevens' pieces, it would be cool if they three gathered together for one night and make a glorious acoustic guitar trio. "Spencer Park" is another shorter track, with a calmer sound, a nice structure and some additional elements that makes it richer. One can be listening to this and feeling relaxed, happy, pleased.

"West Green" might be a kind of reggae-classic-acoustic track, mainly due to the friendly rhythm. The last part has also some nice spacey effects. "Jubilee" may be more of the same, the first seconds with the hit to the guitar's body, and later the stringsbeing played with high quality, once again. And finally "Dolls house" which is another of my favorite tracks, a great way to finish the album.

Matt Stevens music is great, I really like his style, though "Ghost" is still my favorite album (and better than this, in my opinion) I am happy with "Echo", a cool album whose music may appeal to any prog lover. My final grade will be three stars (3.5).

Enjoy it!