Erik Satie: Gymnopédie No. 1 (Transcr. for Guitar)
François Couperin: Les barricades mystérieuses
Philip Glass: Orphée's Bedroom
Leo Brouwer: Canción de cuna (Berceuse)
Claude Debussy: Clair de Lune (Arr. for Guitar by Eduardo Sáinz de la Maza)
Sylvius Leopold Weiss: Passacaglia
Erik Satie: Gnossienne No. 1 (Arr. for Guitar by Pedro Henriques da Silva)
Domenico Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Transcr. for Guitar)
Fernando Sor: Etude in E Minor, Op. 6, No. 11
Max Richter: A Catalogue of Afternoons
Claude Debussy: La fille aux cheveux de lin
Sebastián de Iradier: La paloma (Arr. for Guitar by Francisco Tárrega)
Stanley Myers: Cavatina (Arr. for Guitar by John Williams)
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Just in time for the lazy, hazy days of summer, when listening to a Wagner opera or Bruckner symphony just doesn't feel right, comes a delightful album of highly popular and mellow pieces originally written for the guitar or arranged for the instrument. In the booklet notes Spanish guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas states that: "blue stands for a particularly intimate mood." I would say that it also stands for an introspective bit of reflective melancholy. And all of the pieces gathered together in this collection exude, in their own individual way, a timeless sense of distant and yet precious memories.

Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, who already has about twelve recordings to his credit, lends each one a heartfelt and unfeigned level of expressivity. Even the more "classical" works by Fernando Sor and Sylvius Leopold Weiss for example, are given the same thoughtful shaping and color. As well, the finely curated variety of pieces at hand help to curtail ear fatigue. The audio recording itself adds exactly the precise level of reverb to the sound to generate a quasi dreamy atmosphere perfectly suited to this type of music. The ideal album to lose yourself in the moment.