Under a Mediterranean Sky - Steve Hackett review

Under A Mediterranean Sky – Steve Hackett review by Chris High

Insideoutmusic

January 22st, 2021.

It has been thirteen years since Steve Hackett released a purely acoustic album. Now the wait is over and, in these troubled times, Under A Mediterranean Sky is precisely what the doctor ordered. The passion and romance of the region, along with sun-kissed beaches, the chilled cocktails and exotic landscapes, are all deliciously conjured up within this collection of eleven magnificently executed creations.

The use of orchestrals add depth and resonance, while the incorporation of the Iranian stringed tar and Arsen Petrosyan’s Armenian duduk on The Dervish And The Djin add mysticism and awe that can often times only be associated with the music of Hackett at his subliminal best.

Joie de Vivre holds echoes of Mason Williams’ Classical Gas but creates the allusion of rain spattering an otherwise tranquil bay, whereas Scarlatti has a deliciously Elizabethan feel to it brought on by Hackett’s dextrous use of the charango.

Oftentimes, with electric compositions, there is little room for manoeuvre and when acoustic tracks emerge, they feature as a rest bite more as an entity. With Under A Mediterranean Sky, however, Steve Hackett, long-time collaborator and multi-talented musician Roger King and their fabulous fellow contributors have created a musical journey that encompasses the Mediterranean expanse and perfectly encapsulates a chameleon -like expressiveness on each listen of each track

A master-class in virtuosity, imagination and inspirational terpsichorean expansiveness guaranteed to delight the soul as much as it does the senses, Under A Mediterranean Sky is a demonstration of how being forced into lockdown – the album was recorded, and produced under tight social distance restrictions – may not, creatively, be all bad.

Tracklisting: