Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

Chris Pusey's projects seem to follow me around; I recall being rather scathing in Cross Rhythms magazine a few years ago about one of his earlier electric efforts, dismissing his music as merely flashy fretwork, and not being too impressed with one of his subsequent releases. This six-track EP contains classical guitar music, with occasional keyboards and (synthesised?) brass, and is described by Chris as "depicting a musical journey reflecting one's life of late" (the "one" in question being himself). I must confess that the track titles - "Serenity", "House Of Dreams", "Secret Tears", "Lake Of Serpents", "My Salzberg" ("salt mountain"?) and "Passion Fruit" - are for me pretty meaningless, because all the tracks sound the same; close your eyes and ignore the CD player read-out, and you'd be hard pushed to tell where one track ends and the next begins. Also, there's more of that flashy fretwork, and little in the way of melody, except in the last track, "Passion Fruit", which has a rather Rodrigo-esque quality and is the most satisfying listen by far. I can't get away from the feeling that Chris is being rather self-indulgent; I presume that he knows what the music is supposed to mean, but it's lost on me.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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