Marrakech

Marrakech is the sophomore release of Irish virtuoso guitarist and composer Shane Hennessy. The core musical concept of this album revolves around 'visual music' - music that transports its listener to a specific time or place. This album retains the melodic nature of Zephyrus (his 2015 début) while building on more complex harmonic structures and forms, as well as incorporating world and ethnic influences, almost playing against the natural strengths of the acoustic guitar at times.

 

Among the wide variety of styles, listeners can look forward to a mix of energetic tunes like the Nile Rodgers-inspired ‘Dance Tonight’ and the Chet Atkins-esque ‘Effervescent’. The concluding track ‘I’m Off Today’ shows off Hennessy’s efforts of capturing the modern Snarky Puppy-fusion sound in his style, and elements of global ethnic music traditions are heavily peppered throughout tracks such as ‘Marrakech’ (Arabian), ‘Quentão’ (Brazilian), and ‘Cortadito’ (Cuban). More reflective and introspective tracks on the album include the reggae styled 'Higher Love', the melodic ballad ‘Sailing To Shore’, the gentle meditative ‘Koramantra’,  and the Irish-infused ‘Through The Woods’. A feature in common to almost every track on the album is that they were written and arranged as songs prior to being arranged for guitar, hence the strong melodic presence in the tunes.