Guitarist and composer Steffen Basho-Junghans has taken the acoustic guitar in many wondrous and provocative directions over the past 25 years, particularly in this century on his recordings Inside, Waters in Azure, and 7 Books. On these recordings he has used the music that influenced him, such as the wandering inter-musical and cross-cultural terrains first explored by Robbie Basho and John Fahey, where rugged, primitive American folk and blues styles join with East Indian and Western classical techniques and harmonic concepts, and engaged experimental studies in tonality, texture, dynamics, and tension. These hybrid explorations have redefined the place and terrain of the acoustic guitar in the new century. Song of the Earth, on the gadfly Sublingual label, was the first introduction most listeners on the American side of the Atlantic had to Basho-Junghans. It remains, along with the devastatingly beautiful Rivers and Bridges, a masterpiece of the "folk western raga" style of guitar music. There are seven tracks on the disc showcasing different elements of Basho-Junghans' unique and pioneering method. This is guitar music with great spiritual and emotional presence. It is a seemingly meandering, yet utterly focused labyrinthine music, where overtones and drones communicate with beautiful pastoral passages inherent in Western song forms, and knotty single- and multi-string runs that are embedded within modal frameworks. The seven pieces here range in length from the staggeringly moving The Gates of Delight, at 16 minutes, to the spacious and ethereal opening track, The Grand Entry at just over 10 minutes, to the haunting Warrior's Lullaby that could have appeared on the Cold Mountain soundtrack and clocks in at just three-and-a-half. This is a solo guitar record that gives new meaning to the genre. And while Rivers and Bridges may have been more ambitious in places, Song of the Earth is even more beautiful in its articulation of nuance, elegance and grace. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi

1		The Grand Entry
2		Red In the Rainbow
3		Song of the Earth
4		Sweet Moonlight Revelations
5		The Gates Of Delight
6		Warrior's Lullaby
7		Silent Skies

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