Nymph Suite and Other Stories - Lee Westwood Ensemble
    "As might be expected, given the CD title, there's an overriding delicacy to affairs here but one that bases in classicalism—not just the facile echo of classical construction too often affected by pseudo-progrock groups ("neoprog") and New Age partisans but a genuine chamber sophistication. Lee Westwood plays guitar with a hoary combination of the eldritch and modern, somewhat like a John Williams (no, not the whey-faced Star Wars composer but the great British classical/modern guitarist) and thus bridges the languages of his enterprise marvelously.
    For back-up, he chose to utilize a flautist, cellist, violinist, and contrabassist, all of whom exercise deep sympathies for the compositions. The songs are strongly Romantic but also hark further back to airily post-Medieval days, when pastorales ruled while players were yearning to break into more futuristic leanings. This of course leads to a number of Impressionistic responses, as in Water—Dryad & Nereid, with Phillippe Barnes' flute dancing spaciously atop Westwood's entrancing fingerpicking in a duet that sounds far fuller than it is, a signal of superb writing. Ravel figures as a constant near presence here and continues his presence throughout the disc.
    Traces of the first Long Hello LP are evident, as well as Jade Warrior, a bit of Jan Akkerman, Flairck, Gryphon, Fruup, Conventum, and other progrockers but the CD isn't prog, rather a more profound exposition of that which informed so many brilliant musical minds of the ilk. Steve Hackett, in later work, delved into this territory but still not quite so authentically as Westwood. Were it not for the distinctly 20th century strains wafting throughout the suites, one would be tempted to think the work issued from a semi-modern classicalist text perhaps resurrected from transcripts lost to happenstance.
    Nymph Suite is a collection of songs of rare discernment, completely immersed in an evolved sense of art that I wouldn't be surprise to find debuting at Royce Hall (UCLA's famed venue for important new classical works) or elsewhere. The vivacity shown is remarkable for its subtle ability to cancel any possibility of turning away in what might otherwise be a reflexive disdain for a goodly amount of the oft old constructions while still infusing the best possible elements of that ancient tradition. In short, a masterpiece, though it will require a very intelligent set of ears to fully savor its properties." - Mark S. Tucker, Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange 2009

Lee Westwood – Nymph Suite & Other Stories
Lee Westwood has produced a genre-busting follow-up to his excellent 2006 debut in Nymph Suite. There are elements of prog rock, classical music, and even a hint of jazz, or at least improvisation, in this album, and it works wonderfully. Westwood's supple, fluid guitar playing is accompanied by flute, violin, cello and double bass on this recording, but it's the composition that really shines out. Melodic and harmonic, the music winds around you in a way that sweeps you away to an enchanted forest without once making you think of a Lord Of The Rings convention.  - Sam Wise, Acoustic Magazine 2009

"Nymph Suite and Other Stories," 2008 - In Lee Westwood's second release, "Nymph Suite and Other Stories", he has been joined by several fellow musicians to form the Lee Westwood Ensemble. The disc features new music composed by Westwood, and is a natural growth from his debut CD, which predominantly comprised of solo guitar works. Most notably, these new compositions share a distinctive mood, which is a common thread throughout the entirety of the disc. While the music has a meditative effect, it is never introverted, as the flute presents the melodic content in a clear direct voice, frequently speckled with delicate tonguing techniques. This peaceful effect is the result rather, of the cyclical, yet tastefully chromatic and paradoxically unpredictable nature of the melodies. Meanwhile, the soundscape is then further enhanced through the support of Westwood's flowing guitar arpeggios, and the haunting sustain of violin and cello. Accompanying the disc is a series of poems and original art, which appears to have inspired Westwood's music. When these various mediums are experienced together, the listener is guided through an artistic journey like none other." - Timothy Smith, Minor 7th 2008

"Our folk music also gives him inspiration - the acoustic voices of the 21st century...
    This year the ODT (Országjáró Dalosok) became international because of a genius 26 year old Englishman. This wasn't the first time in Hungary for Lee Westwood.
    Lee Westwood writes his own compositions; they don't belong to any genre. People say the're eclectic, modern lullabies, the acoustic music of the 21st century. He says his individual style balances between Classical and Folk music. When he was a teenager he learnt to play electric guitar, and tehn went on to learn acoustic. He has formed his own individual picking and compositional techniques.This year was Lee's 6th year in Hungary, and he regularly goes to the Kapolcs Festival. This was where he heard about the ODT. The young musicians were enthusiastic about him. They were curious and he answered directly -
    "I feel very well here, I'm not worried about the language difficulties", he said. "I  like the folk music and the gypsy songs. They give me inspiration. There are some Hungarian songs that I used in my compositions. Then I made them more colourful."
    And he picked his guitar up immediately and started to play his own arrangement of Fúdd El Jó Szél.
    "These songs are improvised at first, and when I can't keep them in my mind I write them down" he said, laughing. He said he often listens to Hungarian folk songs in Brighton. His favourites are Kolinda, Beata Palya, and similar performers. He can get these CDs in England, but only by order, so when he's in Hungary, he always buys some CDs. His opinion about the World Music scene is favourable.
    "If someone likes the traditional music, it's not important where the music comes from. In England and I guess in the whole of Europe this trend is becoming more popular."
    When I asked Lee what his job is, he looked embarrased. He's a musician, composer, and guitar teacher. But he knows in Hungary the musicians can't earn their living by playing music.
    "I'm lucky because there are lots more opportunities to play gigs in Brighton than in Szombathely, for example. We can play live music in concert halls and pubs. But also the songs with lyrics are more popular than the instrumental music."
    Lee's main aim is to compose music rather than to play. He often composes pieces for his own band and for other bands. From here he travels to Kapolcs, and he promised if somebody calls him to play, he'll come with pleasure. He studies the language from his Hungarian girlfriend, and it's not a surprise he has learnt the names of some instruments first." - Tersztyánszky Krisztina, Vas Népe 2008 (translation - Tímea Németh)

    "When listening to music, if you're anything like myself, you create a picture of the artist in your mind—a mental representation of presence, of posture, of detail of the moment. For instance, I "remember" Clapton smoking his way through Smokestack Lightnin' on my favorite Yardbirds' album, Five Live Yardbirds, not as a gangly teenager but as the long-haired and mustachioed guitarist with Cream. When I heard Glass Harp's first album, I was certain that Phil Keaggy was the tallest member of the group, but when I heard the music the picture of the bassist, Dan Pecchio, picking out those incredible and unique leads instead of the diminutive-in-comparison Keaggy was as wrong as it could be. With that in mind, I hope Lee Westwood forgives me if as I listen to To Sleep: Farewell Songs he appears lanky, tall, long hair hanging down and obscuring one of those "Dad Gad" guitars he is so partial to, fingers of both hands waving and twisting like the arms of a small octopus. Hey, I tried to play guitar once. It was hard just to chord. To play like Lee Westwood is a gift.
    Part of that gift is the package of twelve acoustic compositions presented here. Sometimes solo, sometimes with help from Philippe Barnes, Westwood here creates twelve separate stand-alone tone poems, each painting a musical picture. Indeed, each is attached to a pen and ink (?) drawing of artist Adam Oehlers which add visual to the landscape and takes the music, and the art, to another level. Whether it is a chicken or egg thing matters not, the influence of each art form on the other being more of perception than actuality. What matters is that when the music starts, one cannot help but pick up the insert and look at the corresponding drawing. It almost seems as if they belong together through some cosmic melding of the arts.
    Some would call this improvisational, but what it really is is compositional. Parts seem classical, others straight jazz, while others are virtual rock (there are moments where, if Westwood wasn't playing acoustic, you would have to use "unplugged" to describe them). You could use a number of works by other guitarists to describe the music, but that perception would be in your own head. It would not be unlike comparing Yeats to Langston Hughes, even though the only real comparison is the medium of the written word. Each of Westwood's compositions is an original, created at some place and time within a certain space. You realize that after the first listen and, sure, you might have a feeling that you have heard that little trill someplace else, or even the backward run on the minor chord, but you really haven't. Not unless you have heard Westwood.
    There have always been two schools of thought regarding appreciation of this realm of acoustic guitar music: the if-you-don't-focus, you-don't-get-it school and the more common if-I-don't-get-it-right-off, it-isn't-for-me faction. I have to admit that it does take a bit of focus to hear what Westwood is doing, but that is mostly because he attempts things beyond most guitarists. The thing is, he does it so well, the first group will find the focusing second nature after a few cursory listens, and the second will find that a little effort can be incredibly rewarding.
    On the technical side, this is an extremely well recorded album with top-notch performance. Westwood's octopus-like tendrils float over the strings with seeming ease, the notes clear and precise and, amazingly, with no sleeve noise (that's the noise made when fingers shift from one chord to another). And the tone? Beautiful. Philippe Barnes' contributions on silver flute, wooden flute and Galician Pipes are masterful, especially on Reels, which bounces through a handful of movements in a mere few minutes and should catch the ear of even the skeptic. Same goes for Gerard Mapstones' guitar on Hell Is Full of Angels.
    As for artist Adam Oehlers, I have an odd feeling that I have seen some of his work before, or maybe some like it. The drawings are intriguing to me, the subjects encased in a fantasy world way beyond my ability to comprehend. They are presented in a very well put together insert, one drawing per song, perfect for holding while listening to the album. It is a perfect complement to a very impressive album. Very impressive, indeed." - Frank Gutch Jr., Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange 2007

"Lee Westwood is based in Brighton, England, and is a wonderful guitar player. He cites influences ranging through jazz, classical and folk music.The dozen tracks offered on To Sleep: Farewell Songs give the listener a fine overview of these influences and Westwood's interpretations of them.It may not be an album that jumps out at you, unless you are a great fan of good guitar music and composition for that instrument, but the tracks -- including "To Sleep," "The Juggler" and "Music for Children" -- are worthy of more than a cursory listen.The accompanying booklet contains commissioned art work allied to the tracks and can be used to heighten the appreciation of Westwood's work." - Nicky Rossiter, Rambles 2007

"It seems that the UK wishes to continue its tradition of great acoustic guitarists. One of them is Lee Westwood, an excellent musician with an amazing finger-picking technique. His exceptional compositions are influenced by jazz, folk, classical music and blues. 'To Sleep' has 12 guitar pieces with arrangements on the flute and on the Galician bagpipe by Philippe Barnes, who accompanies him live. A breath of fresh air, indispensable for those who have in their collection the historical and mythical Renbourn, Jansch, Graham (and all the rest)." - J.V, Guitarra Total 2007 (translation - Sofia Fernandez)

"Lee's a young acoustic player from Brighton and To Sleep is a remarkable self-financed CD that suggests he'll be a name to know in the future if he keeps this up: remember you heard it here first! He seems to make simple work of absorbing classical, jazz, bluegrass, Irish and English folk influences to deliver 12 tracks with distinct flavours. Reels is full of Celtic noodling and Dear Little Emmie sounds like he ate Adrian Legg for breakfast before deciding to relax on the groove instead. Lots of quality DADGAD-based tunes here - and a nicely packaged CD." - Guitar & Bass 2007

"Not the golfer, but a brilliantly talented young artist, with a broad palette of styles mixed seamlessly together on this album. Bringing to mind at once Django and Michael Hedges, and mixing influences to create something quite new in this set of instrumentals, he's created a very deep and engaging piece of work... anyone with an appreciation for the fusion of ideas should love 'To Sleep'." – Sam Wise, Acoustic Magazine 2006

"Lee Westwood - No, not the golfer... an emerging acoustic instrumentalist with blazing technique, ensuring the fingerpicking tradition remains in safe hands. Like most kids getting into music for the first time in the late eighties, Lee Westwood was inspired to pick up the guitar by a certain legendary rock export from Stoke-On-Trent. Back then it was the law. "When I was nine my mum started playing Guns N' Roses in the car and that was it, basically, I wanted to be Slash," he says. Despite seven years of playing electric in rock bands, his all-acoustic debut album To Sleep - with its intricate fingerpicking and counterpoint melodies, and its jazz, folk, blues and classical influences - has more in common with Pierre Bensusan and Eric Roche than Guns N' Roses. "At university in Brighton I was fiddling around with the acoustic guitar and my friend told me to throw away my plectrum and start learning again with my fingers," Westwood recalls. "I started hearing people like Tommy Emmanuel and Pierre Bensusan and I'd never heard anything like it before. That was about five or six years ago. Then, about three years ago, I found out they were playing in DADGAD. Finding a new tuning was a new means of expression that made everything fresh again." From then on the 20-year-old Westwood "didn't really do anything else". He explains: "For a good three years I was just playing eight to 15 hours a day in my house. That's how you get good at things, or familiar with them at least." And the result of this dedication is that To Sleep's range of styles is dizzying, but never hackneyed. Whether taking in John Renbourn-like bluesy picking on Calamity, or tracing unusual time signatures in A Star Above The Arctic Circle, Westwood either sidesteps DADGAD's failsafe riffs altogether, or transforms them into something fresh. "It's not so much the shapes and styles to avoid, more a question of how you use them. And if in your head you can hear this massive band playing and you've just got an acoustic guitar to replicate it, then you start using all these rhythms and polyrhythms." His choice of instrument is equally humbling. "For the album I just played a pretty cheap Epiphone PR775S dreadnought: spruce top, laminate back and sides, with huge cracks and dents in it. In fact, in the past two weeks, it's reached the end of it's life. It's sad... but I'd never break it up for firewood or anything." While adamant that he's not trying to be a revivalist, and that nowodays he's actually more interested in sounding like Rachmaninov or Debussy on the guitar than anyone else, he doesn't rule out the possibility he may be part of a new folk revival. "I was busking the other day and some guy was telling me he thought there was some Celtic folk revival in England, that it was all coming back in fashion, that there seem to be a lot of ceilidhs going on - so you never know. Maybe he was right. Or maybe he was mad. Passing Notes... Favourite guitarists: Ralph Towner, Michael Hedges, Pierre Bensusan, John Fahey. Favourite Gear: "I'm really looking to play a Richard Osborne guitar. He's a luthier in Lewes, his guitars are fantastic - just beautiful. Id be after a rosewood back and sides, probably Brazilian, Sitka spruce top, dreadnought shape, things I've become familiar with. Try if you like: Eric Roche, Pierre Bensusan. Out now: To Sleep (Farewell Songs). More info: www.lee-westwood.com." - Owen Bailey, Guitarist Magazine 2006.

"It's difficult to mention this great new player without the spirit of another - Eric Roche - also coming to mind. But although there's certainly a flavour of the late, great man throughout this release, Westwood slathers his own unique style hither and thither. A Star Above The Arctic Circle... mixes percussive harmonic hits with lovely chord inversions and effective question and answer lines. There's Reels, with yet more 'Irish' leanings and even a touch of Gordon Giltrap, and Dear Little Emmie, which will send shivers down your spine. Homegrown guitar talent needs your support, so if acoustic playing is your thing, visit www.lee-westwood.com and get yourself a copy of this fascinating CD. Standout tracks: A Star Above The Arctic Circle, Hell Is Full Of Angels, Dear Little Emmie" - Simon Bradley, Guitarist Magazine 2006.

"Composer/guitarist Lee Westwood counts among his musical influences Pierre Bensusan, Ralph Towner, Michael Hedges, Tommy Emmanuel, Django Reinhardt, Sergei Rachmaninov, Debussy, Tool, Bjork, and Sonny Rollins. His main outlet is performing solo steel-string guitar in DADGAD tuning in an aggressive, dense style. Philippe Barnes adds flute on several pieces in a manner reminiscent of Tony Robert's playing on John Renbourn's "The Black Balloon." Westwood is prodigiously talented and able to create musical landscapes that are abstract, yet always energetic. This very intensity renders the title of the CD something of a puzzle, since his music is full of contrasting dynamics, string snapping, insistent rhythms and strong melodies. "A Star Above The Arctic Circle" quickly became a favourite, as it features a slower, somewhat jazzy introduction. "Calamity" follows, and is a great, bluesy piece - imagine a hybrid of Bert Jansch and Peter Finger and you'll get some idea of it's feel. "Reels" begins with a Celtic aura, but soon moves into jazzy syncopation under swirling guitar and flute lines. Adam Oehlers' illustrations on the insert for "Music For Children" and "Dear Little Emmie" yield no obvious insight into the corresponding tunes, which are too complex to evoke childhood, yet Westwood's music is no less compelling for it. "Hell Is Full Of Angels" presents a possible resolution to the unsettled quality of the music on one hand and the titles and accompanying drawings on the other; he may purposely intend to convey a loss of innocence and its accompanying confusion. This puzzle persists throught the end of the CD, but, to the patient listener, Westwood's music is captivating. This disc rewards repeated listening and will hold special interest for guitarists who compose and perform their own instrumentals." - Patrick Regains, Minor 7th 2006.

"Thank goodness for Lee Westwood, whose 'To Sleep (Farewell Songs)' will have guitar players giving up in despair and the rest of us delighted. Very rarely is technical wizardry on an instrument used to say something that otherwise could not be said. Lee manages that and it's a pleasure to hear. One man, an acoustic and (apparently) four hundred thousand fingers." - Giles Duffy, Rocks Magazine 2006.

"...an astonishing acoustic guitar talent, Lee Westwood presents his very own approach to music. Lee surely impresses as a guitar player and composer, as well as with his new album 'To Sleep'. Check him out!" - Henk de Veldhuis, Bridge Guitar Reviews 2006.

"Lee's an exceptional player, and it's very difficult to find a genre that accurately describes his style of playing. With a generous nod to the late Eric Roche (an extremely gifted performer who is sadly missed), Lee's style combines elements of jazz, folk, classical and gipsy, all delivered without the slightest whiff of the stuffiness that can come with some of those genres" - Phil Jackson, BBC Southern Counties 2006.

"Catch Lee before he becomes big time" - Paul Brazier, The Argus 2006.