Acoustic Alchemy

Starting out as a partnership between guitarists Nick Webb and Greg Carmichael in the early 1980s, the duo created in-flight background music for Virgin Airlines before recruiting a team of musicians to experiment with all manner of styles and sounds on their debut album Red Dust and Spanish Lace (1987). Their delicate, serene, instrumental melodies included blues, folk, Latin and classical influences, and they even stretched to "Chinese reggae" on breakthrough single Mr. Chow, before they came to wider attention when their track Natural Elements was used as the theme to BBC TV show Gardener's World. Tagged in the genre new age, the band's album Reference Point (1990) was nominated for a Grammy Award, but Webb was later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was barely able to complete perhaps their finest work Positive Thinking (1998) shortly before his death. Miles Gilderdale took over Webb's role and they bounced back with the acclaimed Aart (2001) (also Grammy Award-nominated), and they continued to explore music's outer reaches on albums Radio Contact (2003), American/English (2005) and This Way (2007). Still active after over 30 years, the band's unique duelling guitar style and wide range of influences make them unique outsiders of the jazz world.