Pat Metheny, Road To The Sun Review

Pat Metheny is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and twenty-time GRAMMY-winner. Metheny’s creative career spans nearly five decades, with his musical style crossing many genre boundaries. Metheny is now releasing his latest project titled Road To The Sun, his debut for BMG Modern Recordings. The album is a collection of two major new works composed by Metheny and performed by five of the world’s leading guitarists. The Grammy-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux performs the four-movement solo guitar suite Four Paths Of Light.  The six-movement cycle is performed by the Grammy-award winners Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ) – described by Metheny as “one of the best bands in the world.” “Originally, I came to composing as a way of expanding my reach as an improviser,” says Metheny. “Improvising and composing are related activities that happen at wildly different temperatures. But at the same time, ideally, the kinds of things that I love as a listener and a music lover are what I aspire to represent, regardless of how they come to be.” There are aspects of Metheny’s own unique and innovative guitar style woven throughout these compositions, not the least being the joyous melodic content that has distinguished so much of Metheny’s work. Metheny only performs on the final selection, Arvo Pärt’s Für Alina, and provides strumming on two tracks, the focus of Road To The Sun is his compositions.

[section label=”Bottom Line”]Bottom Line:  Road to the Sun opens with a four-movement solo guitar suite Four Points of Light that Metheny composed for Vieaux. “Pt. 3” of Four Points of Light is a delightful composition with many moving voices and melodies. Vieaux’s tone and technical facility are gorgeous. The B section relaxes the activity and has many commonly heard harmonic and melodic relationships Metheny is known for. The counterpoint between the melody and bass figures is exciting and drives the momentum. The use of natural harmonics is also of note in the composition. The four parts of Four Points of Light attain consistent and inspired compositional levels where technical poise and intrinsic musicality beautifully merge.

The title selection is a six-part suite performed by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ), consisting of John Dearman, William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, and Matthew Greif. “Pt. 2” of the suite navigates an active melody with interlacing tremolos, counterpoint, tambors, and scales which the LAGQ flawlessly executes every accent and every nuance perfectly. Metheny’s composition visits multiple contrasts, each with subtle distinction in techniques and densities. The strumming section in the latter portion of the song contrasts with the warmer inflections of the beginning sections bringing the music to a stirring climax. On the other hand, “Pt. 4” features some of the most alluringly shaded ostinatos surrounding the gorgeous melody. “Für Alina” fittingly ends the project with Metheny performing solo on his 42-string guitar. The colors and timbres he coaxes from the instrument and the arrangement are beautiful. Overall, Road to the Sun represents a stunning compositional statement with the modernism of style brought to the classical guitar repertoire. Metheny’s music is spiritual, unideological, and the performers capture the rhythmic drive and emphases essential to Metheny’s music and convey its natural sense of pulse. The sounds have couplings of jazz, world, Latin, and classical united with Metheny’s legendary musical vocabulary. Metheny’s thirst for musical form, love of genres, and a strong sense of melody is a pleasant surprise in the classical guitar canon, and the rhythmic aspects are especially welcomed. The compositions are ferociously melodic, intellectual, and hugely impressive; the result here is digestible and round out a very joyful listening episode. That’s the short of it!

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