Emeralds

• Posted: Tue 5 Jul 2011
• By: john haylock

Guthrie has that rare distinction amongst guitarists, an almost instantly recognizable sound, a sound that has taken him from the glory years with the legendary Cocteau Twins and into a fruitful career that encompasses soundtracks, most recently Gregg Araki's 'Kaboom' , Dany Saadias '3:19' and another Araki film 'Mysterious Skin' plus various collaborations.

As recently as only last year he recorded 'Bordeaux' with another towering figure on the ambient scene, Harold Budd all this plus a prolific succession of solo albums of intense scintillating beauty.

His trademark arsenal of effects and slow deeply sensual guitar lines have made him an iconic figure, this reverence is duly justified, and 'Emeralds' merely continues this arcing trajectory, it displays brilliantly his innate skill at creating delicately textured amplified guitar sounds that weave and coil imperceptibly around mesmerizing loops of reverberating and echoing sound.

There are ten tracks here, ten ways of defining the word beauty, ten reasons why this is the best album i've heard thus far in 2011.