Samaël Pelletier "Cascadia" 2024 Billed as "an immersive journey into a mysterious, ancient lost world," contemporary fingerstyle acoustic guitarist Samaël's newest album is titled Cascadia. Comprising six original tracks, in Cascadia Samaël appears to espouse a Jungian mythos (big clue: there's a quote from Jung on the interior cover of the CD): his previous album was titled Shadow, a personage or concept from the very heart of Jungian psychology. Here, on Cascadia, he offers tracks with titles such as "Ancient Whispers," "The Mask," and "Unmasked," all seemingly immersed in a depth psychology and mythos of Samaël's own composition. "Cascadia" is a tantalizing clue, as that's the name of an imaginary state composed of parts of Washington, Oregon, and northern California--so perhaps the "rustic mysticism" of a "forgotten realm" refers to a Pacific Northwest where Bigfoot can be a bodhisattva and the constant rain is divine tears pouring down to wash us clean. By far, "Cascadia" is my favorite track on this album, though they all have various broken rhythms that I find unsettling--as if our dreamliner keeps getting bumped around in rumpled air. From a depth-psychology perspective, this might simply be the soul doing the hard work of, well, of keeping on keeping on. Life is bumpy, and I won't argue that the album takes "listeners on an evocative sonic adventure." As with so many contemporary fingerstyle albums, this one is drenched in reverb. Sometimes it works and sometimes not--Samaël is a fine player and I feel like that sometimes gets obscured by these clouds of reverb and other effects. Rather than effects, I'd love to hear Samaël in an ensemble setting--perhaps with woodwinds and percussion. The compositions on this album are fine indeed and they might hit differently given a wider palette of timbres and the breath of other souls. © Brian Clark

Jim Green "Prime" 2024 Prime is an impetuous romp that grabs hold of the listener and won't let go. Jim Green is a prodigious fleet-fingered talent whose jaw-dropping virtuosic technique is readily apparent on these 14 originals. "Boxcar Man" charges out of the gate with ferocious intensity, while lovely "Firefly" opens deceptively slowly with a beautiful classical tremolo that soon morphs into slaps and other percussive sounds. "The Green Endorphin" has a bluegrass/Celtic sensibility, "The Velvet Hammer" features two-handed fretwork and deft hammer-ons, while "Glitch Switch" leans rock and roll. (For the mystified curious, videos can be located that show his overhand approach to the fretboard, as exemplified here by "The Drunken Square Dance" and "Hotshot"). Don't think it's all just flashy technique, either. Green plays with sensitivity and soul, as in evidence on the gorgeous "Stargazing," a personal favorite. Prime should secure Green the wider recognition he deserves. © Céline Keating