Having initially been introduced to Simonne Draper via the exquisite single Accordiana, this first taste left me wanting more. And that is precisely what any single worth its salt should do. It seeks to entice the audience and tests the water for a full album to follow. That album, Silence of Eclipse, is now here, and if that first single promised something rather special, even its grace and gentle majesty didn’t quite prepare me for what was to follow.

Simonne Draper is a sonic explorer, it’s what she does and does brilliantly, creating contemporary pieces for the classical guitar, but even that description is a vague approximation of what is at work on this latest release. Across ten compositions and one remix, she weaves those six strings through musical landscapes draped in classical grace and folk sentiments, world music traditions and otherworldly sensations, delicate sonics and orchestral grandeur, graceful lulls and anthemic swells.

The opener, Eclipse, sets the tone for the album, with a flurry of arabesque guitar work dancing over a wash of strings that ebb and flow with the ever-changing intensity and atmosphere required. It is a piece that demonstrates the skill of her playing whilst also that Simonne Draper is all about serving the song rather than blowing her own trumpet, although I suspect she would be able to do that instrument justice too, if she chose too

I get so used to talking about guitars in terms of the brash and the bombastic, the effect-laden and the over-driven, that it comes as quite a shock, a pleasant one, naturally,  when I hear the sound of said instrument played in the way that God, and by God, I, of course, mean the Great Segovia, intended.

Taken from Simonne Draper‘s forthcoming album, Silence of Eclipse, this Czech Composers Society member deftly and delicately pulls and picks cascades of notes from her Spanish Guitar and bids them dance across the washes and waves of strings as they ebb and flow behind her.

Rather than the usual sound of man and machine battling for a common cause (and indeed effects) to combine human skill and electronic manipulation into a pop or rock sound, here we find the skill all in the human hand, the instrument itself, though finely wrought is merely a tool to be turned to the players will. And the sound, that innocent, pure, and untampered with acoustic sound, is a joy to behold—the sound of the artist playing the instrument when all too often it feels like the instrument is playing the artist.

Created at a place where the down-tempo sound of the chillout breaks up against more stringent classical vibes, where exploration and discipline work hand in hand, Accordiana is a gorgeous piece of music, meditative and relaxing, ornate in its creation yet somehow feeling spacious and understated (if such a concept isn’t too much of an oxymoron).