The former Police guitarist's first solo instrumental album turns out to be a gentle, thoroughly domesticated continuation of his looping soundscapes with Robert Fripp earlier in the 1980s ("I Advance Masked").
Keyboardist David Hentschel is a co-conspirator on several tracks, though Summers is perfectly content to go it alone on others.
With its repeated guitar loops, interactive counterlines, gentle washes of keyboards, advancing and receding waves of effects, Summers is out to sooth and refresh, not to challenge and disturb -- and the music drifts lazily toward the shores of the soporific New Age.
"Shining Sea" definitely has a kinship with the sound of the Fripp collaborations, but shorn of their forbidding edges, and the rest floats in and out, leaving barely a trace behind.
It's all very pretty and it all sounds somewhat innocuous today, now that the phenomenon of tape or digital loops is no longer an avant-garde pet preserve.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red BalloonDavid Hentschel, Andy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 03:35 | 8 MB | 16 MB |
| 2 | Mysterious BarricadesAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 03:10 | 7 MB | 12 MB |
| 3 | When That Day ComesAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 01:19 | 3 MB | 5 MB |
| 4 | Train SongAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 02:43 | 6 MB | 13 MB |
| 5 | LunaAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 02:28 | 5 MB | 9 MB |
| 6 | Satyric DancerDavid Hentschel, Andy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 03:48 | 8 MB | 14 MB |
| 7 | Shining SeaAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 03:28 | 7 MB | 15 MB |
| 8 | Emperor's Last StrawAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 04:28 | 10 MB | 17 MB |
| 9 | RainAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 03:14 | 7 MB | 13 MB |
| 10 | TomorrowAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 03:25 | 7 MB | 13 MB |
| 11 | In Praise of ShadowsAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 04:49 | 11 MB | 17 MB |
| 12 | The Lost MarblesAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 03:18 | 7 MB | 12 MB |
| 13 | How Can I ForgetAndy Summers | Andy Summers | Play | 02:39 | 6 MB | 8 MB |
| 42 mins | 97 MB | |||||
| 42 mins | 168 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marc Abraham | Photography |
| 2 | Bob Casale | Engineer, Mixing |
| 3 | Bernie Grundman | Mastering |
| 4 | David Hentschel | Composer, Keyboards, Mixing, Producer |
| 5 | Norman Moore | Art Direction, Design |
| 6 | Anne Seelbach | Paintings |
| 7 | Dennis Smith | Technical Assistance |
| 8 | Andy Summers | Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Mixing, Photography, Primary Artist, Producer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |