Wally Shorts' Turquoise, early 80s (?)

Probably one of my favourite keyboards album of all time, although the mysterious Wally Shorts plays flute on this all-instrumental dreamlike escapade from the Netherlands.  In some respects this is typical of a lot of other albums from the same country, some of which I've featured before here or here. Really scarce information, undoubtedly some reader will help, so for now I'll focus on the music.

Particularly celestial are the digital strings in the background of the title track, but using an acoustic bass soloing as well as a guitar improvising on the other channel to complement the flute's sustained notes which hold it all together in the middle, is without a doubt unique.  Then, another quieter flute adds texture on the guitar side later on:





You really feel like you're floating on a cloud on a beautiful day, perfect for the time of year.  It's that kind of textural feel that is totally missing from any music from any other period, setting aside modern classical music which is anyways lacking in the electronic instrument dimension.

In the next track, Carousel of Love, a relatively simple 1-2 chord change provides more substrate for the utter beauty of the flute melody:





And I promise you'll find several other great gemstones and sparkling colours in here.  As a whole it reminds me of another big favourite, Bjorn J-son Lindh's (only, in my opinion) compositional masterpiece called Bike Voyage II.  Everything comes together with strong songwriting, beauty a plenty, and a kind of musical consensus going all in the right direction.  (Which was fated to end so abruptly when the seventies page turned over to the eighties.)