I first became aware of Italian guitarist Lelio Padovani when I was asked to review his instrumental album “The Big Picture”. The album was a delightful and intriguing musical journey from start to finish and introduced me to a player who had that rarest of qualities in the instrumental guitar world…his own voice with which he spoke his own language that was at the same time individual and yet universal. Lelio's playing made me listen to guitar music in a way I hadn’t done for a long time and I found his musical creations inspiring and wonderfully unique. I ended the review saying I hoped to hear more from Lelio in the future and now with his latest release “Chasing The Muse” I am able to do just that.

I really wanted this album to be good and as the album came to an end after my first listen I couldn’t believe my ears. I was smiling from ear to ear and nodding my head to myself with knowing approval and I can reveal “Chasing The Muse” is a musical wonder and a melodic masterpiece.

Once again Lelio has written, recorded and mixed the album himself and compared to “The Big Picture” his new album is sonically fuller, warmer and richer. The album features eight instrumentals which are diverse in both style and mood and which are all blessed with wonderfully crafted arrangements.

Lelio's guitar tone throughout this album is smooth and warm with a round tone that is almost vocal and as a result truly seems to speak to the listener. The only other player who has a tone like this to my ear is Vinnie Moore.

There are some really fabulous moments on this album and some of the highlights to this reviewer include the title track “Chasing The Muse”. On “The Big Picture” I commented that Lelio's playing pushes the listener along and never pulls. Once again Lelio has provided us with a track that does this with ease. This song also had a very pleasing effect on me due to Lelio's note choice and I will now try to explain as best I can what this effect was. Imagine being in a car and driving down a country road only to come to a hidden dip. The moment the car heads down the dip you get butterflies in your stomach as everything lurches forward and your body catches up. Well Lelio puts together note choices and melodies that cause those butterflies. They fly at you unexpectedly and as fast as they appear they are gone. It’s a sublime effect, which on repeated listens still gets me.

“Daydream” is a truly gorgeous piece of music, which uses melody to rule its head and its heart. Harmonically it shows Lelio is on top of his game as he displays stunning chord progressions that are in a word beautiful and inspiring. I kept going back to this song time after time and eventually I had to consciously pull myself away as it was becoming addictive. I did find myself thinking if you had to categorize this track it could be called baroque fusion.

“Better Days” is high drama put to music and imparts the feeling of whatever tough times we’ve been through and may yet face we’ll all come through out of the dark and into the light. The many layers of instrumentation and harmonized guitar melodies give this track a cinematic quality.

In a landscape of instrumental guitar albums that generally demonstrate guitar excess at the expense of melody Lelio stands apart. He is a player who thinks outside the box and as result throws new light on where the guitar can take the listener.

Music is an art form and Lelio is that rare example in the guitar world that is a player who truly paints pictures with notes as his colours, melodies as his subject matter all applied to the canvas that is his vision.

“Chasing The Muse” sees Lelio building and developing further what he started on “The Big Picture” and ultimately creating a unique and individual melodic gem. Highly recommended

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Track Listing

Invitation
Chasing The Muse
Daydream
Rainy
Light And Shadow
New Day
Ballet
Better Days