Genre: Acoustic

01 Look To the Sun
02 The Color of Sunshine
03 Gray Salt Marsh
04 Infrared: The Abyss
05 Alhambra (The Red)
06 Orange Blossom Honey
07 Jaune (Yellow)
08 Green Corn And Spring
09 Mar Azul
10 Violet Blue
11 UV Radiations
12 Black Rock Beach
13 White Light
14 Reach For The Rainbow

Lawrence Blatt is an American musician who composes arrangements for playing solo on guitar. His previous albums include Out Of The Woodwork from 2006 and Fibonacci's Dream from 2007. On the latter, he combines his passions for mathematics and music and puts it into music. On his newest fork, The Color Of Sunshine, he continues on the work laid out by Grimaldi, Newton and Goethe. Grimaldi and Newton both discovered that a beam of sunlight was not just one straight line, nor was it one color. Newton went on to create a "color wheel", and he wrote about the relationship between music and color in his book Opticks. Goethe, one hundred years later, proposed a link between color and mood. Lawrence Blatt takes all this, and creates music that's meant to draw different colors in your head and induce a certain mood. When looking at the tracktitles, it's already obvious that this work has to do something with light and color. 

I would've preferred not to name the tracks as such, as that influences the way one interprets an instrumental track already. And this is a main feature of the album. The music is very well crafted, but it's only suitable for background music. I found listening to this intensely not really possible, as the music just isn't interesting enough to keep your attention for a long while. As a matter of fact, after listening to it three times completely, I was already done with it. However, when you are really liking this sort of fingerpicking instrumental music, this album would be a very nice addition. Blatt plays his instruments very well, in different kinds of tuning, but there's just something lacking.

It must be said however that I really enjoyed the background of this album and the whole concept. The artwork by Joan elan Davis also fits very well. It's warm, and the whole album, from booklet to CD to backcover is in the same pallet of colors. It's a very good attempt, but this music simply isn't for everyone. Alas. Let me end with quoting S:M:J63's ending words for the previous Lawrence Blatt album that was reviewed on Heathen Harvest: "It’s pleasant and undemanding enough, but that’s not what I (and I suspect a lot of HH readers) are looking for in their music."