As a music fan I simply adore artists that are just there, producing the best music imaginable – year out and year in – and not making any fuss about it. Artists that are simply doing their thing. The best example is of course Tangerine Dream, who has been around since 1967 and still is the most creative and active group out there. Another artist that can be mentioned in the same breath as TD (I am sure Edgar Froese would agree), is Davol. His brand new album is called Good Sign. And yes, it is a very good sign indeed!

Davol (pronounced duh-VOL) was born in Hollywood, CA in 1961, and currently lives in Denver. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1989 in Microbiology. In the same year he debuted as a new age music artist with the album Mystic Waves. His songs Appaloosa and Hand in mine are among the most popular and highest rated songs on New Age Stars radio. Now in February he has released his sixth album Good Sign. So this is not an artist that releases albums every second month; no, every synth note is carefully placed.

Good Sign is a 8 track long album. One of the songs, the surprisingly political Truth 2010, has been released before as a single (but this is a new mix, hence the 2010 in the name). The ingredients that made Davol’s previous releases so great are all here; the carefully crafted synth melodies and the positive, upbeat atmosphere. This is Davol’s trademark, no one out there does it better. My favorite track is track 3, Going there. But also Stay and Goodnight are new Davol classics.

The only bad thing I can point at is the cover. Davol has in the past had some magnificent covers, like the Open Book cover, but the one to the left is not nice. That was not a good sign… But hey, don’t judge a book by its cover, right? Open it!

Sample the album on CDBaby.