Steve Gunn & David Moore – Let the Moon Be a Planet – Album Review
by Killian Laher

This collaboration between guitarist Steve Gunn and David Moore of ambient project Bing and Ruth is volume 1 of the Reflections series, something to look out for, perhaps along the lines of the In the Fishtank series?

This album sounds at first like a lot of very pleasant but aimless guitar noodling over piano chords.  But then you realise that’s the point.  It’s an escape, right from the start, with the lovely tranquil opener Over the Dune.  Second track Painterly is a good description of the track, with little brush strokes of guitar and piano.

Tranquil is the word here. Scattered is a gentle, thoughtful piece of music while Morning Mare proceeds steadily with slow, deliberate guitar picking.  The soothing guitar work on Paper Limb is like an aural balm but on the other hand, Rhododendron is quite formless.

The tracks are all quite similar, you’ll find yourself not realising which track is which.  You might well end up missing Gunn’s more song-based material.  It’s a very pleasant album for sure but it’s hard not to feel it’s a little less than the sum of its constituent parts.

Over the Dune