Nicholas Gunn Album "Pacific Blue" Reviewed

Nicholas Gunn is an electronic Chillout music artist from the UK, that has released around 20 albums and currently self releases his material and is promoted by Higher Level media, who are based in the states.

His latest album is called "Pacific Blue", which is rich and atmospheric, a body of work that is truly outstanding.

 

The album opens with the gorgeous "Into The Vastness", with it's mix of piano, strings and pads, the main melody in the song is beautiful, a brilliant piece of chilled electronica. wonderful!

Track 2, "And I" calls on the vocal talents of Alina Renae, who is featured on 4 tracks on the album, and what a voice she has, perfect for the music backdrop created by Nicholas, the vocals are given space to shine against the synth pads, acoustic guitar and excellent piano section, sometimes less is more and this track is evidence of that. Breathtaking.

"Sailing" has a nice gentle guitar intro and ambient sounds, with elements of percussion, a strong synth lead and then at the 1 miniute 45 seconds mark the track cleverly veers into trance territory, the depth in sound through headphones is amazing. A great relaxing vibe to this track.

"Chasing The Light" has a beautiful piano intro and pad sounds that are haunting yet warm, superb acoustic guitar too, he really knows how to mix different instruments into a song with great effect, I love the way the track drifts but keeps you focused, a fabulous and infectious piece of music.

The second track that features Alina Renae on vocals is "Fallen", yet again flawless vocal delivery, here we have more rhythm, which works well in the context of the track, a song that draws you in, I like how it builds, great synthesizers too, perfect again!

"Adrift" has an excellent guitar as its main driving force, the guitar work reminds me of the work of Mark Knopfler, it really stands out on this track, lush pads and strings compliment the guitar work really well. A very impressive chillout track.

The next song "Float", is an interesting one, it has dub like vocals against a minimal soundscape, great lead sound which could be a koto or a harp, at least thats what it sounds like to me. Nice strings again that have an icey cold feel to them.

Next we have the title track "Pacific Blue", which again features Alina on vocals. The pads and strings are in perfect harmony with the effortless vocals by Alina, a very cinematic track.

Following that we have "Coast", which has a sound that reminded me of Enigma, some beautiful guitar arrangements on the song, with a chilled beat driving the track, his use of strings again is something to marvel about, outstanding, the whole song has a fantastic arrangement.

The closing song is "Out From The Deep", which features Alina on vocals, I like the haunting feel of the vocals and the rumbling bass-line with sporadic guitar and of course the orchestration is amazing and really lifts the track to another level.

On his website the album is descibed as nothing short of breathtaking, lush and exquisite, I couldn't have put it better myself, this is an artist at the top of his game and for me is one of the best ever chillout albums I have ever had the pleasure to listen to, a magnificent piece of work.

Sit on a beach with the sand and the sea with this music playing....paradise.

9/10

The album is available from iTunes here:

https://music.apple.com/us/album/pacific-blue/1503882926

Vist the official homepage of Nicholas Gunn here:

https://nicholasgunn.com/

Visit Higher Level Media Website here:

https://www.higherlevel.media/