In 2019, Bay-area based guitarist / composer Carl Weingarten released what some were calling then his finest album yet called This Is Where I Found You. Like most of the rest of the world, Carl was affected by the global pandemic of 2020, yet he rises to the occasion again with a most worthy follow-up release entitled Ember Days. Regarding the 2021 CD release of Ember Days, Carl explains “I recorded most of it over this last year during the shut-in. It was a challenge and became an opportunity to reimagine my sound.” The ten-track album starts off optimistically with “Round Robin”, featuring Carl’s acoustic and electric guitar as well as slide guitar, backed up by Michael Manring on fretless and 10-string bass. The album moves solidly onward from there with added presence from a number of musicians including Pete Calendra (keyboards), Kit Walker (piano), Ulrich Schnauss (synths), and Carl’s long-term accomplices in his early band Delay Tactics, David Udell (guitar) and Walter Whitney (keyboards). In the spirit of her appearance on This Is Where I Found You, vocalist Tate Bissinger appears once again on Ember Days, adding her wordless vocals, doubling Carl’s melodic lead guitar lines on several tracks. As on This Is Where I Found You, the album artwork, this time from Martin Stranka, gracing the CD package is excellent, as is the first video from the album, the title song “Ember Days”. Musically, an air of wistful nostalgia permeates the soundstage. It’s not quite a Deja-Vu feeling, yet melodically Ember Days finds Carl Weingarten further refining his instrumental guitar-centric sound. Some may describe the 10-track, 51-minute album as New Age, Impressionistic Folk-Jazz, future jazz or even contemporary neoclassical in scope and feel. With such a display of stately, sonic guitar-based grooves and sonorous arrangements, the effect of Ember Days is mesmerizing, soothing and entertaining all at the same time.