The Light Beyond

Following 2000's profoundly critical Hypnos Recordings release To the Shores of Heaven, Jeff Pearce, to many, had made his mark as an artist and as an ambient force to be reckoned with; with a half-dozen recordings under his belt, and as many compilation appearances and collaboration spots, one could say that Pearce has quickly moved to the top of the ambient genre. With The Light Beyond, Pearce charts a new direction in his compositional style. Pearce's work has always been quite melodic and without drones, not usually representative of ambient music, but with The Light Beyond, Pearce has turned away a bit from the melodies and turned more toward the drones, creating a profoundly ambient recording. The Light Beyond isn't a droney recording like classic Brian Eno or Steve Roach discs, but you're not going to hear Pearce's gifted, melodic work as much on this recording either. The Light Beyond was recorded during a "live" broadcast at the Star's End studios in June of 2000, so essentially this is a "live" recording, but with Pearce's gifted production work you could never tell. Another point worth mentioning is that this recording was created entirely out of a single solo electric guitar; the sounds that Pearce manages to coax out of his guitar are amazing and it sounds like there's more going on than that, but there's not. This is a great starting point for fans of ambient music, but if you're more interested in melodic music try checking out his 2000 release To the Shores of Heaven.