“This album was inspired by our love of the acoustic guitar.”

‘Acoustic Devotion’ is a fourteen-track album with warm, playful and emotive guitars, drums and string quartet. recorded at KORE studios in London, the tracks are composed by Jeff Knowler and Craig Joiner, the sessions were conducted by John Ashton Thomas.

What was the thinking behind the album and what composition processes did you use?

Jeff: “The concept was to explore and showcase the ability of this one instrument to evoke many different moods. Every track starts with the acoustic and expands outwards sonically, with additional instruments carefully chosen to enhance the characteristics of the guitar part; for example using a string section as a warm backdrop to a picked melody, an accordion to draw out the excitement of a strummed rhythm, and a double bass to extend the lower frequencies of the guitar, but always striving to keep the acoustic as the prominent and central feature.

From the beginning we knew that it was going to be important to use real instruments rather than samples, but it wasn’t until we got into the studio with the string section that we heard the music really come to life and the acoustic guitar given the full respect it deserved!”

Craig: “We also wanted to make the most organic sounding acoustic guitar album we could and we are both incredibly proud of the outcome. The great thing about this project was that it took us back into the studio with real musicians, not just working from home on computer generated software. There’s nothing like the real thing!”.

For more info and a video of the making of, please visit:

http://www.unippm.co.uk/#!/news/Album Promos/chappell-acoustic-devotion-behind-the-scenes.aspx