Water Garden

Pay with

About Water Garden

Product Description solo acoustic guitar from one of the masters of the contemporary acoustic genre; nominated for both Grammy & Indie Awards, this release was the winner of the Crossroads Magazine Award for Best Acoustic Instrumental Album Amazon.com "Meditation and water are wedded forever," says New Acoustic progenitor Alex de Grassi, quoting Herman Melville in the liner notes to this 10-song cycle of solo steel-string guitar pieces "on the theme of water." There's a stillness at the heart of this Garden, but don't expect placid performances; de Grassi's stunning finger style exploits rapidslike torrents of open-tuned chords ("Prelude"), babbling brooks of uplifting hammer-on melodies ("The Zipper"), and buoyant themes floating over liquid counterpoint ("Another Shore"). Sure, the former Windham Hill mainstay, whose Turning: Turning Back and Slow Circle helped define that label's identity, is capable of brooding, contemplative work--the lovely title track is a good example--but he rarely gets stuck in meditative mud, preferring, as in "Cumulus Rising," to wring great emotion from even his quietest moments. The Water Garden suggests that de Grassi's vision has only gotten deeper and clearer over time; he's a jazz composer with a folkie's fingers and the Northern California coastline in his soul. --James Rotondi