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Whether or not you paint, this CD series may be for you. Apparently intended as background music for artists, it holds appeal for just about anyone who enjoys Keaggy, instrumentals, and (as is always the case with Keaggy) brilliant guitar work. The music is roughly sorted by style from disc to disc, and the titles are quite descriptive of the music found thereon. Electric Blue is done with electric guitars and less of the acoustic vibe that dominates the other three CDs, and it's a bit more rowdy musically-- faster tempos and flashier, louder guitar work. Splash is a more acoustic version of Electric Blue: more adventurous guitar work than the other two, but not quite so much as EB. Brushstrokes is slower and more deliberate than EB or Splash. Still Life is the most mellow of the four by far. One day, while in the car with my rowdy children, I put it in the player and looked back 15 minutes later to find two sleeping boys. So what do you do with this music if you don't paint and don't have loud children who need pacifying? Name it! EB and Splash make excellent driving music (Brushstrokes and Still Life are fine for driving as long as you're not prone to sleeping at the wheel). All are great as background music for various moods, and SL and B would work particularly well as music for meditation, prayer, or just a quiet mood. Instrumentation on all discs includes guitar, percussion and woodwinds, and some contain keyboards, electric guitars, guitar synthesizers, drums, bass, trumpets, and violin. The only nit to pick here is in the packaging. First the good news: on the back of each disc is a "Preview" box, listing Mood, Style, and Instruments. These relate the flavor of the disc accurately and are helpful in selecting the one you want. Unfortunately, under the "Preview" box is a blurb about how the music relates to the creation of art. These can lean toward cheesiness, as in this example from Still Life: "Meditate on the beauty in everyday life that the master artist creates. Following the example, you reflect detail and peacefulness in the stillness. You are painstakingly capturing a moment in time and making it last, for the rest of us to see." What a shame to taint such good music with such a description! My advice? Buy the disc(s) that appeal to you, enjoy the music, and don't read the blurb on the back. Lisa Reid 3/27/2000
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