Release Date: January
5, 2016
Label: October
Moon Records
If
music moves you enough to be picturesque then it is doing what intends to.
Instrumental tracks must create something other than an auditory experience for
the listener. Without words there is no story right? This is not always the
case when someone knows how to deliver a message with music alone. Mr. Linton
accomplishes this with a flair and excellence on Beyond The Clearing.
“Lingering
Rustle” certainly holds a meaning. It is a sound, perhaps a feeling one has,
something is moving and trying to tell you something. That lingering could be a
feeling you have internally, whether it’s an urging, a rumbling in the stomach
or just a voice within giving you direction. That fact that it is lingering
indicates that it will not go away unless addressed. This song is very gentle
in its approach and Robert
paints
the sky with the gentle pastels of his decisive guitar lines. Other instruments
come into the picture and are then sprinkled in ever so slightly to accentuate
the atmosphere and sincere feeling of the track.
As
always I leave the interpretation of each song to each individuals own
perception. I look at the CD cover, the title of the track and listen intently
then put all of that together as each track develops and then I start feeling
certain things and begin seeing a movie unfold in my mind’s eye. This can only
happen with exceptional music and this album passed the test.
The title track is always significant and the artist
holds up his end of that expectation with “Beyond The Clearing.” Once again
gentle acoustic and melodic guitar lines whisper on the wind as it swirls
around your being you begin to feel like you are melting into the scenery
unfolding in your mind. It is the very essence of beauty and perfection much
like the natural surroundings that Robert is standing in the middle of on the
cover of this album. A man, his thoughts and his guitar take the barren hot
desert and turn it into his own personal heaven. What was once looked at as a
desolate and lonely place blooms into a haven of peace and solitude that a
spiritual individual can appreciate and want to return to.
Beyond
The Clearing is a work of art that an artist with a clear
vision of what he wanted to present to a listening audience. The sheer beauty
of one instrument leading you down the path of completion and satisfaction is
what awaits you inside this music. The sounds and colors that paint this
musical canvas are bright with life and the promise of a new day. What more
could one ask from a recording?
4/5
Stars
Key Tracks: Aside the River Bed, Lingering Rustle, Beyond The Clearing
Tracks:
01. Aside the River Bend
02. Gathering over the Surface
03. Lingering Rustle
04. Shadowing the Hillside
05. A Distant Storm
06. Beyond the Clearing
07. Stretching Across the Horizon
08. Amid the Stillness
09. Beneath the Cloudless Sky
Keith “MuzikMan”
Hannaleck- New Age Music Reviews Founder
January 20, 2016
Review
Provided By New Age Music Reviews