Reviewed by Andy Shaw

This is the third album in the Presence series by UK-based DJ and producer Andy Hunter. The Presence Project was first launched in 2016 with a vision to provide a resource to help people reflect, meditate and pray through music, film, poetry and photography with content delivered through a mobile app. As with the first two volumes, 'Presence, Vol 3' features tracks created by Andy and if you have ever used that app you may recognise some of the tracks. There is a risk that abstracting the music from the platform it was created for, in the Presence app, and releasing it as a separate album might make it lose its impact and I think to a certain extent that is true. That said, it is not trying to hide that fact that it is music created to facilitate reflection and meditation on God and it does a brilliant job of leading you into that place. Opener "Storm" is a delicate, atmospheric track drifting between the calm of a simple piano line and the mellow vocals of Edie Bens to dramatic swelling synths and crashing beats. All through the record, Andy does a great job of creating space and letting the music breathe without ever letting it get boring. Each track sounds simple and allows you to reflect and to focus in prayer or meditation yet there is just the right amount of depth and variation with the use of layers of synths exploring different sounds and textures. It is easy to associate reflective with laid back, down temp tracks but that does not need to be the case as demonstrated by the pulsing beat and bass synth of "Love Like That" and the euphoric soaring synths of "Raining Sunshine" bringing a sense of celebration and joy. This record achieves exactly what it was designed to do, providing a soundtrack for reflection, meditation and prayer.

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