Michael Garfield – A Million Anniversaries: CyberAcoustic Guitar

By Marlee Keeven
Take a journey far and wide into a land of love and light. This two-disc album sets the mood for exploring one’s spirituality and finding inner peace. Garfield is an acoustic-electronic guitarist from Boulder, loosely fusing Indian, Middle Eastern, Spanish, tribal and modern electronic. The result is sometimes intense, sometimes relaxing and sometimes mind-numbing.
The only reason this album might not be appreciated is if you don’t have a musical ear. It’s hard to pick out specific songs that are amazingly awesome because the album is meant to be listened to as a whole. And even though the songs are non-verbal and contain the same types of trippy noises and mind-expanding themes, don’t take this to mean that each tune sounds just like its neighbor.
It’s as if the songs, and thus the listener, go in and out of consciousness. It can be very spacy and ambient, but the instrumentals are smart.
Garfield also does live art at shows and festivals, and his music is a sort of testament of this. His music would be a great companion for painting, studying, writing or even lovemaking. It might be a better accompaniment to creativity than a live show headliner (because the audience would have to be so specific and open-minded), but this is the only complaint. But, really, is that much of a complaint?
If you’re heading to Burning Man then be sure to catch Garfield there through September 5. Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for more dates to come.
michaelgarfield.blogspot.com