I love it that I am getting more and more ambient/contemporary instrumental releases to write about. Music like this gets the stress out of your system. We live in a time when multitasking is a normal thing. But just because many people do it, doesn’t mean it is healthy. I love my little quiet space, no one around and yea music such as this to help me figure out my thoughts.

Western Skies Motel is a project by Danish composer/instrumentalist René Schelbeck . Schelbeck also played in a variety of Danish indie bands then spent years raising his family.  Reflections is his come back to the music world. It is a work of emotional force and artful craftsmanship.

I love the album for its unhurried pace and textures. I can listen to the tunes again and again and find minute detail. I think that every written observation one has isn’t really done at all. There’s always something new to find out and that makes you want to say’ hey I wish I could have written about that sound’ but then again the article is already published and all you can do is just appreciate the discovery you have with the music. And that discovery is a private matter. I know I will discover new things after this. But in general, all I can have to say is this:  Reflections is a beautiful collection of tunes that aims to awaken that deeper aspects of how we sense and relate to things around us.

All the tracks in Reflections are written around the  harmonium and acoustic guitar. The title track Reflection starts out with a quiet stretch between notes using the guitar. The reverb and feedback turn to ambient harmonies. Then the ‘walking’ tempo starts and the movement is the movement of ones emotion as it syncs with the music. Here and There sounds like a cross between prairie scenes and a friendly alien through the use of harmony effects with gentle drums.  Homesick reminds me of ripples you make when you touch a pond. His rhythm moves like waves and the gentle forces soothes the mind.

Three tracks and I could not get enough. René Schelbeck is an artist to keep on the radar!

More here: http://music.audiogourmet.co.uk/merch