I was intrigued by the music of Hollan Holmes ten years ago and I'm happy to say that his 2022 album on the Spotted Peccary label is his finest CD yet. A new found air of artistry reigns supreme on the 11-track Emerald Waters. Now that Hollan has achieved increasing acclaim for his previous prolific catalog of albums, including his Spotted Peccary debut, Milestones from 2020, he steps up to a higher level with Emerald Waters. The music retains its high-tech electronic instrumental edge, yet here it's offset by a more neoromantic structure big on melodic cadences, rendering it different from the Berlin school of electronic music sound he espoused on his earlier albums.

Case in point is track 7, “The Sublime Shimmer” that adds in traces of 1980s Oldfield and Jarre. With titles like the lead-off “Hydroelectric”, “The River” and of course the title track, Hollan’s self-styled tribute to everlasting H20, Emerald Waters flows on a steady stream of Hollan’s never-ending musical imagination. The instrumentation is truly amazing making it clear that the sound of the album is Hollan’s best yet. The range of synthesizers featured on Emerald Waters is featured on a full panel of the CD packaging which is very aquatic in design. A very deep and calm album of instrumental electronica from maestro Hollan Holmes, Emerald Water floats on a sea of sonic bliss.