It's not uncommon these days to find Celtic or even Middle Eastern sounds incorporated into rock music. Traditionally Chinese music, though is a different story. As well as the combination works on this disc, I have to wonder why it's not done more often. The music here is an instrumental smorgasbord that feels quite a bit like California Guitar Trio at times, but also has elements of Pink Floyd, Enigma and others. The Asian sounds run throughout most of the disc. Most instrumental albums are a bit boring and redundant at points, but this one never feels tired, instead it presents a relaxing, you interesting musical soundscape throughout it's length.

Guitar Garden is predominately the work of one man, Pete Prown who handles lead guitar, keyboards, guitar synthesizer, and various sound samples. Prown was editor-in-chief of Guitar Shop magazine and still writes for Vintage Guitar magazine. He has also written several books on music performance, and still he finds the time to follow his passion of creating music. Rich Maloof on acoustic-fingerstyle and electric guitars rounds out the actual lineup, but the disc also includes guest performances by Brett Bottomley (acoustic & electric bass), Steve Puglia (keyboards) and John Gannon (percussion).

Fans of mellower instrumental prog like California Guitar Trio will probably love this disc. It might be worth checking out for others, too, though as it is really an exceptionally good disc.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2005 Year Book Volume 1 at https://garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2005.