Instrumental music must be extremely expressive. This is non-negotiable. If you don’t want to tell the listener a verbal story, then you best be prepared to let your instrument do the talking. Patrick DeCoste’s sinuously smooth guitar work does just that. His guitar tone is just the right mixture of sweetness and the occassional touch of nasty that makes for a dynamic trip through varying levels of atmospheric. DeCoste’s guitar is smooth as liquid – that occasionally boils.
DeCoste’s guitar performance alone is the dynamic element that powers and sustains “Saudade.” It has many faces, from the graceful swan dives off high cliffs to the crashing crunch of saturated, rhythmic waves. DeCoste is just as capable of long, luxuriant string bends as he is of flying up the fretboard in the arpeggiated perfection of a smooth, mellofluous combination of notes.
DeCoste makes the guitar sing loud, whether he’s flying or simply… gliding. ”Saudade” seems to exist in some world or clime other than our familiar urban landscape. You can’t tell if he’s swooping over vistas of sand, snow or stone. (It) seems to breathe, inhaling and exhaling each new movement and melody. DeCoste’s compound will take you places – and they actually end up being places you wanted to go.