Beyond Grand Canyon
The desert Southwest has been the source of more musical inspiration than just about anywhere else in the U.S., and Nicholas Gunn has been trekking through its surreal landscapes since his 1993 debut. He is one of the few flautists to evoke the Southwest without resorting to Native American flute. Instead, he relies mostly on a silver concert flute for most of his lush, often tribally rhythmic evocations.Beyond Grand Canyonis of a piece with all the albums he's released over the last decade or so, many of which have "Grand Canyon" somewhere in their titles. Favoring romantic harmonies and arrangements that border on Yanni 's terrain,Beyond Grand Canyonis on the lighter side of Gunn's oeuvre: often tending toward the sentimental, when a darker, more evocative touch might serve him better. Gunn plays flutes, stacks his voice in earthy, vaguely Native American-meets-Gothic choirs, and plays keyboards and percussion throughout the disc, accompanied sparingly by violinists (including Karen Briggs) and guitarists (including Johannes Linstead). Despite the Southwestern scenario, there's a surprising Celtic flavor to many of these tracks, including the title piece and "The Boneyard." And when it's not Celtic, Gunn brings a Latin and flamenco feel.  On the companion DVD, the album tracks accompany a slickly produced slide show of Michael Fatali's color-saturated, painterly photographs, a vibrant, hyper-real Yang to Ansel Adams's stark and austere Yin.--John Diliberto