Steve Hackett has not, unlike the rest of the planet, spent the last year in quiet contemplation. As the world slowed and travel stopped, Hackett found himself with tours cancelled, some rare time on his hands and thinking of better times and faraway places. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then this is the most eloquent of love letters to days idly spent in balmy Mediterranean climes.
His first acoustic album since 2008’s Tribute is a more muscular proposition than Hackett merely settled on a stool in the studio picking at his guitar until it sings. Combining the expansive, international palette of 2017’s The Night Siren, Hackett lets fly, be it with nylon, steel string, 12-string guitar, or an instrument like the charango (part of the lute family, apparently).