Daniel Larson - "Studio Sessions 2001"
From Aural Innovations #18 (January 2002)
Daniel Larson is an extraordinary guitar player from the San Francisco Bay Area. I have been lucky enough to hear some tracks from his forthcoming debut CD called Far From This Planet. Daniel has played most all the instruments and produced this music in his own Purple Skies Recording studio. His brother Fred Larson helps out on bass on two tracks. The first track is entitled First Kiss of the new Century and features two layers of acoustic guitar and is a most beautiful song that I could imagine Jimi had played. Liquid Eyes is next and has programmed drums but some very spaced keyboards in which Daniel layers his vocals in a spoken style, but low in the mix and the guitar just floats and glides. Some acoustic strummed topped with some very nice but subtle leads. Clouds Passed By is a very different psychedelic folk-like song with layered, echoing vocals. The last track is Traveling Beyond This Planet. It begins with some deep space keyboards and guitar with a layer of acoustic guitar. A very cool deep space guitar solo which reminds me a bit of Richard Orlando from Alien Planetscapes meets Frank Marino in another world. Excellent stuff... We can look forward to the debut CD in 2002.
Reviewed by Scott Heller