One of the most adventurous singers-songwriters to have come out of England, Keith Christmas more often than not grounded his tunes in folk-rooted textures, which didn’t prevent such electricity-loving luminaries as Ians McDonald and Wallace, Greg Lake and Rod Argent, Peter Solley and the recently departed Gerry Conway from contributing to his early records, while David Bowie chose Christmas’ acoustic guitar to be featured on his “Space Oddity” album. That same instrument was at the forefront of Keith last offering, "Life, Life" from 2019 – yet all the veteran’s previous platters were song-based. Except one from 2023 he’s just reissued.
What was then titled “Acoustica” and has been restyled as “2coustica” is a brilliant collection of instrumental pieces which require no voice to pluck the strings of the listener’s psyche: it’s that beautiful – judge for yourselves. But why re-release it now?
“Twenty years since it was first released, I have personally remixed ‘Acoustica’ and remastered it using modern cutting-edge techniques, from the original Emagic Logic files,” says Keith. “A mixture of arranged and free-form guitar parts, the album is made up of four layers of sound – two foundation tracks, either double-tracked or different interlocking parts, one lead track and one track that is nothing but harmonics – so you can now hear this wonderful work as never before. More so, it includes a bonus track developed from an idea recorded during the original sessions.”
2coustica
1 Dancing
2 Opening Out
3 Easy
4 Awakening
5 Sliding
6 Ascension
7 Floating
8 Inside Out
9 Dreaming
10 Coolbox
