Reviewed by Chris Tozer

Here is a delightful album that truly lives up to the cover promise of '22 songs taking you to a place of worshipful rest.' Talking of the cover, it's great to see that, at last, Kingsway Music have taken on board the critics' pleas by naming Alan Shacklock (the famed British record producer now living in the USA) as the artist of this magnificent work on the pleasantly designed cover. Let's hope that the practice of crediting musicians continues on all their future instrumental releases. Judging by the number of such recordings that I have already reviewed over the past couple of years the Christian companies must have found music without words a surprisingly popular genre despite the fact that they have built up their long held reputation through the words of songs. These recordings are far removed from the concept of merely recording the melodies of contemporary worship tunes on a Spanish guitar. Indeed, the listener may not recognise many of their favourite songs the first time the discs are played. Classical guitar music is generally more reflective that the vast majority of today's worship music. It involves runs and pauses, slowly strummed chords and variations on a theme. It has a well defined pace and will not be rushed - just like our own reflective times should be. How nice also that there are two discs providing the listener with almost an hour and a half of unremitting bliss.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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