ELEGY

Having achieved notable success with his trilogy of fine albums between 1976 and 1978 ("Visionary", "Perilous journey" and "Fear of the dark") Gordon Giltrap's profile reduced substantially for the next decade or so. Albums appeared from time to time, but these tended to be compilations and live releases rather than genuinely fresh material. Giltrap was not sitting on his hands though, working on, inter alia, the musical "Heathcliff".

In 1986, Giltrap re-entered the studio but this time alone, rather that with a supporting band. This therefore is a genuine solo album by Gordon Giltrap, where he plays all the instruments himself. He keeps the instrumentation simple, using only a selection of acoustic and electric guitars plus a bass guitar. Hence there are no drums, no keyboards and there is no orchestration.

There is unsurprisingly an inherent sameness to the content of the album as a whole, and the extent to which the listener derives pleasure from it will be entirely dependent on their appetite for a single style of music. The opening "In unison" sets the scene well, with impeccably played solo acoustic guitar being accompanied by bass and sundry guitar chimes. With all the tracks being composed by Giltrap, there is no opportunity to stumble upon something familiar (unless of course one is already familiar with the album), titles such as "A Christmas carol" and "The Mariner's tale" to that extent being unintentionally misleading.

While the tracks are individually named and performed with distinct gaps between each, there is an overall continuity to the album due to its limited diversity of sound and style. This is music to sit back and relax to; not quite ambient but inoffensive and undemanding. Closer listening reveals the dexterity and talent of the performer but at the risk of sounding flippant, there is no real depth as such. On the other hand, the album title is a bit of a red herring, as the music here is not by any means dirge like or remorseful, indeed much of the time the sound is rather lively.

Overall, a highly enjoyable and highly relaxing album which offers little in the way of a challenge but much in the way of well performed acoustic guitar music.

Note that the bonus tracks on the re-issue were recorded by Giltrap with his band a year earlier, and as such are not really relevant in terms of this album. "Elegy" can sometimes be found paired with the 1977 album "Perilous journey" as a 2 on one collection.

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