Adventures in Space (2024), by Paul Speer

After being refined by the fires of Ax Inferno and returning from his Sonoran Odyssey of the American Southwest, guitarist Paul Speer launches into the stratosphere with Adventures in Space, one of his finest solo albums and one of the very best electric guitar recordings out there. And I really mean “out there” in every sense of the expression.

While the album and all the songs have space-based and space-inspired names, the music is actually down to Earth and very accessible. This is not typical “space music” at all – it is pure, unadulterated electric guitar, with the high-tech gloss of the space age.

 

The seven organic compositions contained within are driven by Speer’s blazing guitar, thunderous bass, and scintillating synthesizers and Gregg Bissonette’s pulse-pounding drums. Speer’s former musical collaborator David Lanz contributes graceful piano work on “Spacewalk Europa,” and Ron Krasinski provides kinetic drumming on “Black Hole Dance Party.”

 

The most affecting and impactful tune on the album is the beautifully poignant and solemn “Memories of Earth,” which is also one of Speer’s best compositions. It functions as both a futuristic nostalgic reminiscence of our home planet long after the human race has relocated to a more viable world and a present-day exhortation for us to make sure that our precious Earth doesn’t become a memory anytime soon.

 

The whole album is hypnotic and mesmerizing from beginning to end and a fantastic showcase for Speer’s versatile mastery of the electric guitar and his brilliance as a composer.

 

Adventures in Space is further proof that Paul Speer – one of the few remaining true guitar heroes of the Boomer generation along with Andy Summers, Pat Metheny, and Eric Johnson – is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

 

--Raj Manoharan

 

 

Andy Summers' Top Solo Albums Ranked

In the midst of Andy Summers' successful multimedia tour and the summer streaming release and the fall CD release of his latest album, Vertiginous Canyons, I decided to reassess the Police guitarist's body of solo work and share what I consider are his best and most noteworthy recordings.

My main criteria for these rankings are a primary focus on Summers' guitar playing, the tightness of the compositions, and the consistency of style within each album.

The result is a nice range of artistic output that showcases the depth, breadth, and timelessness of Summers' unique talents and signature sounds over the course of nearly 40 years, from his 40s to his 80s. 

Top Andy Summers Solo Album

Mysterious Barricades (1988)

Top Three Andy Summers Solo Albums

Mysterious Barricades (1988)

Synaesthesia (1995)

Harmonics of the Night (2021)

Top Five Andy Summers Solo Albums

Mysterious Barricades (1988)

The Golden Wire (1989)

Synaesthesia (1995)

Harmonics of the Night (2021)

Vertiginous Canyons (2024)

--Raj Manoharan

CD Version of Andy Summers' Latest Album, Vertiginous Canyons, Due November 1, 2024

Following the June 21, 2024, digital download and streaming release of Andy Summers' latest album, Vertiginous Canyons, the CD version of the recording is scheduled to be available beginning November 1, 2024.

So far it appears that the compact disc will contain the same number of tracks as the digital release, eight tunes at a running time of 23 minutes.

It is expected that the CD will contain the actual photographs from Summers' 2023 book, A Series of Glances, that were the inspiration for the music on Vertiginous Canyons.

--Raj Manoharan

Vertiginous Canyons (2024), by Andy Summers

Released in the midst of his popular multimedia theater tour, The Cracked Lens + A Missing String: A Fantastic Evening With a Brilliant Practitioner of the Guitar, Camera, and Written Word, Andy Summers’ first album as an octogenarian proves that the 81-year-old Police and guitar icon is still very much in his prime and isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

Vertiginous Canyons comprises eight luminous tunes inspired by Summers’ 2023 photography book, A Series of Glances. Although Summers was tapped by the publisher to create soundtracks to accompany select photographs in the volume, each of the tracks creates images of its own in the mind of the listener, an effect that Summers usually manages to conjure with his music.

 

This is Summers’ most pared down and elemental album since his 1988 guitar-and-keyboard masterpiece, Mysterious Barricades. But while that album is tightly structured and composed, this album is free-flowing and improvisational.

 

Although Vertiginous Canyons is Summers’ fourteenth original solo studio album, it is actually his third truly solo album in which he is the sole performer on the record. And it is also his first truly solo guitar album, as the electric guitar is the only instrument on hand here. It's also his first release in which the title of the album is not the exact title of one of the tracks.

 

While an album consisting solely of electric guitar music without any other instruments may sound completely boring, Vertiginous Canyons is anything but. All of the exotic sounds on the album are generated entirely by Summers’ ethereal guitar tones channeled through various devices and signal processors. There may be no bass, drums, and keyboards here, but there are numerous rhythms, layers, and leads, as well as quite a bit of sonic heft.

 

The album is a flawless, seamless, and compact 23-minute listen. That may sound like a short running time, but it makes it all the more possible to enjoy the tight collection much more often. All of the tracks are compelling, intriguing, and unique, although I particularly like “Out of the Shadows,” “Translucent,” and “Into the Blue.” The real surprise for me, though, is “Village.” The way it starts out, you don’t expect it to take you where it does, ultimately making for a wondrous musical journey.

 

Incidentally, in my review of Summers’ previous release, Harmonics of the Night, I mentioned that Summers uses “his guitars to create quiet serenity out of the shadows.” One of the tracks on Vertiginous Canyons is called “Out of the Shadows.” Make of that what you will.

 

Vertiginous Canyons is another exciting and worthy addition to Andy Summers’ eclectic body of work. Like Mysterious Barricades, it is soothing, refreshing, and therapeutic. It is acupuncture for the mind.

 

--Raj Manoharan

 

 

Andy Summers’ Latest Solo Album, Vertiginous Canyons, Due June 21, 2024

While Andy Summers is currently on tour with his theater show, The Cracked Lens + A Missing String: A Fantastic Evening With a Brilliant Practitioner of the Guitar, Camera, and Written Word, the veteran guitarist and member of The Police is also releasing his latest solo album, Vertiginous Canyons, on June 21, 2024.

The album track “Into the Blue” is currently streaming on Amazon and Spotify and is also available on YouTube.

Samples of all of the tracks can be heard on prestomusic.com.

The album consists of ambient solo guitar influenced by Summers’ photographs and sounds very similar to his classic 1988 guitar-and-keyboard album, Mysterious Barricades, as well as his albums with Robert Fripp, I Advance Masked (1982) and Bewitched (1984).

--Raj Manoharan

The Cracked Lens + A Missing String: A Fantastic Evening With a Brilliant Practitioner of the Guitar, Camera, and Written Word (2024), by Andy Summers

Andy Summers, best known as the guitarist of the world-famous rock band The Police, is currently on the second leg of his Cracked Lens + A Missing String theater tour, which began in the fall and winter of 2023.

Currently 81 years old, Summers is in his prime and shows no signs of slowing down!

As the title suggests, the show is a fabulous multimedia blend of music, art, and comedy. Summers demonstrates his virtuosic prowess on electric guitar, playing both self-contained pieces as well as unleashing unbridled leads over backing tracks of his solo music and Police hits, while decades of his photographic artwork unspool behind him on a big screen. In between, Summers pauses for hilarious interludes, recounting humorous anecdotes of his various globetrotting adventures as a member of The Police, as a solo artist, and as a curious itinerant explorer. Every now and then, Summers lounges on a sofa while watching some of his filmed escapades along with the audience.

I know this is a cliché, but it is absolutely true – at this advanced stage of his life and his career, Summers’ playing has never been better. The same goes for his energetic persona and his wit.

I had the good fortune of catching this show in October 2023 in Patchogue, Long Island, and just recently in Newton, New Jersey, in June 2024. I even had the pleasure of meeting and talking to his long-time right-hand man, Dennis Smith, for the first time in person about 40 minutes before the Newton show. As many of Summers’ fans who have had the similar pleasure will attest to, Smith is an extremely charming and delightful chap.

If you are a Police fan and especially an Andy Summers fan and Summers’ show comes to a theater near you, make every effort not to miss it! It is absolutely worth it!

--Raj Manoharan