BAY OF KINGS

Steve Hackett is one of my all time favourite guitarists and solo artists. One of the things that make him so special for me is his ability to fuse different styles into something unique and exciting. This ability is put on hold whenever he decides to go into one single direction at the time. I think that Steve is best when he alternates between his different influences within the context of the same album or within the same song and not when he concentrates on one style only for a whole album.

Bay Of Kings is Hackett's first ever pure Classical guitar album. This was the first out of several such albums by Steve and in a way it can be seen as a debut album of a parallel career rather than as a follow up to Highly Strung. From now on Steve had a Rock career and a Classical career running parallel to each other. It is obvious which one of these is of most interest to the people on this site.

Apart from some discrete keyboards by Nick Magnus and occasional flutes by John Hackett, Bay Of Kings is strictly acoustic guitar played in Classical style.

Steve revisits Kim from the Please Don't Touch album and the eternal Horizons, originally from Genesis Foxtrot album (where it leads the way towards Supper's Ready). This little guitar piece will always be Steve's signature song and a constant live favourite. However, I think this beautiful classic fits better in its natural habitat which is either on the Foxtrot album or in one of Steve's amazing live performances.

Even if the album is relatively short, it cannot stay interesting for long I'm afraid. It lacks diversity and any distinguishing features. Bay Of Kings does tend to get boring quite quickly even if the individual pieces are not bad at all.

I can recommend this only to fans and collectors of Steve Hackett and to people with a special interest in Classical guitar music.

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