Meanwhile down under in Australia you can find Kim Cannan. Cannan plays guitar, percussion, mandolin and celtic harp. Influenced by Joe Satriani her debut album "Intrinsic", is a thoughtful and beautifully crafted instrumental album.

Her subtle acoustic based melodies remind me of the calmer side of Satriani’s work, such as on ‘Surrender’ and ‘The Refreshing’ where elements of Nuno Bettencourt can also be heard.

What I like about Kim’s style is the little ideas she comes up with in her songs such as the use of flutes and synths etc, which make her material easy on the ears and almost of soundtrack appeal.

‘Bronze Flame’ is a song based around medieval ideas similar to Richie Blackmore’s "Blackmore’s Night" band and Clannad, where as ‘Gabriel’ is a soothing spiritual piece.

Other favourite tracks include ‘White Wind’ which is played with tremendous feeling, whilst the utterly fantastic ‘The Legend’ wins the best song award and features perhaps one of the most under used instruments in this genre of music – the Harp, which is one of my favourite instruments and why I love this song so much.

‘Strategies’, ‘Panoramic’, ‘Sunset’ and the gorgeous ‘Ode To God’ all keep the standard and quality high which make for a very elegant and classy instrumental album that I urge you all to check out.

Email : - aliengig@primus.com.au
Rating: 8,5/10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

KIM CANNAN - INTRINSIC

I know nothing about Kim's work previous to this, but fans of instrumental music in the vein of that of Joe Satriani, will certainly get something out of this, though it's aimed at a different sort of market to Joe's music. The quality is certainly there & will attract a lot of listeners because of the great skill Kim shows in playing the guitar & some other instruments, such as the harp, though the guitar is definitely the driving force here.

Some of the tracks are definitely much more laid back than others, like "Surrender" & the closing number "The Legend", while others like the brilliant "An Hour From Somewhere" & my favourite, the opener "Panoramic" will see something here for most. Summing up, great instrumental work, which if you like that sort of thing, this is one of the better examples around & will appeal to a very wide audience.

For more information, write to aliengig@primus.com.au