Having listened to Big Sky about ten times, it became apparent that this album is a music reviewer's nightmare. A nightmare, not because the music is bad or anything of the sort, but because the music is so unique and undefineable stylistically that it is difficult to describe. As much as this stylistic uniqueness might jokingly be a reviewer's nightmare, it is a progressive music fan's dream because it brings a refreshingly new musical perspective that is found in Garsed's instrumental compositions. Though the styles are not really similar, the distinctiveness and uniqueness of Garsed's style on this album is analogous to Joel Hoekstra's accomplishments in achieving uniqueness on his ground breaking release, The Moon Is Falling.

So, despite the admitted futility in trying to categorize Garsed's style on Big Sky, I will attempt to give some depiction of it by describing some of the stylistic elements that are defineable. The compositions are definitely strictly instrumental, complex, and very progressive. I would hesitate to describe the sound as fusion because it seems closer to progressive instrumental rock in sound and feel (sort of like Eric Johnson), but the level of complexity and sophistication involved is more in line with what is more commonly found in world class fusion. This is not to say that there are no fusion influences or elements of fusion to be found in this album, but the character of the album might better be described as progressive rather than to set expectations differently for listeners who might expect a more Gambale variety of fusion.

The sound has some semblance of influence to Eric Johnson in that it deploys very clean toned voicings of a mixture of speedy and soulful guitar lines, and some of the tonality seems influenced by Johnson as well, as does some of the compositional structuring. Specifically, it seems that some of the arpeggiation of chords that involved leading fourth and fifth intervals seemed traceable to Eric Johnson. The intricate complexities of the composition and musicality seem to have a Joel Hoekstra-ish depth and feel to them, though the persona projected is quite different from Hoekstra. The same being true for the character projected by Garsed's use of the Johnson-sounding arpeggios. These arpeggios (for example, from the first track "Undoing"), though noticeably similar in technique to Johnson, seemed to take on an entirely different character in the manner that Garsed applied them and seems in no way derivative or clonish of Johnson.

Garsed's selection and matching of guitar effects and tones to the passages he applied them to was nothing less than perfect and nothing short of breathtaking. His ability to use clean tones that clearly articulate his advanced and speedy technique while maintaining the integrity of a pure and unpolluted guitar sound are truly mesmerizing. There is no use of overdrive or distortion to mask any imperfections in precision to be found on this album. This is one of the more impressive aspects of Garsed's playing. The manner in which these voicings articulated his flowing runs is very artistic and expressionistic. Garsed uses a wide variety of voicings for his musical ideas, including some very tactful applications of speedy legato, arpeggiated sweeps, fluid scales, and well-felt slide.

Using this clean-toned sound that deploys carefully crafted effects to project some character into his musical phrasings, Garsed constructs a number of soulful compositions that balance intensive development of intricate musical ideas with fluid feeling direction. The seamless transition of his musical ideas from one to the next give them a natural accessibility to the listener that overcomes the complexities involved in the composition and his guitar technique. The resulting musicality of Garsed's arrangements is such that the musical vision that is projected dominates the listeners' comprehension of any of the complicated mechanics involved, though an educated ear will definitely appreciate the complexities involved. There is so much emotional content, feeling, and musicality that is conveyed through the music that the compositions just continue to become more enjoyable with each successive listening.

Not only does the album reach great heights in the artistic achievements that it accomplishes, the consistency of quality in the music runs true from start to finish. The entire album is just phenomenal. It is impressive from a technical perspective and it is enjoyable from musicality perspective. Fans of progressive, instrumental guitar are going to feast their ears on this album, as do I suspect fans of fusion will, as well. Brett Garsed has put together an amazing solo release on Big Sky that is without a doubt of world class caliber.

On the scale of "into it", I give Big Sky a "very into it" and two thumbs up. Instrumental efforts of this caliber, musicality, accessibility, and that have soul-appealing enjoyability are few and far between. I can't imagine any fan of instrumental, progressive, guitar-centric music that would be disappointed with this release from Brett Garsed.