Balancing the borders of ambient music and ECM inspired chamber jazz improvisation, English keyboardist Peter Chilvers and American guitarist Jon Durant have teamed up to create a stunningly beautiful aural Vista. For both artists, this recording was an opportunity to explore their introspective sides as well as their textural tendencies. Lovely melodies weave their way through atmospheric clouds, at times reminiscent of Budd and Eno, but with a sense of interplay between the guitar and keys those ambient pioneers left out.

As a teenager, I fell in love with the great ECM recordings of the 70s and 80s. Working with Jon has felt like travelling back to that period and finding an undiscovered star. It’s been a joyful and effortless recording, a live album somehow recorded despite lockdowns on opposite sides of the Atlantic. I wish I could beam it back to my teenage self.”

— Peter Chilvers

Soul of a River as ambient music goes is a masterpiece, like Music for Airports by Eno or Buddha Nature by Deuter, if your ambient music collection is to be complete, it is going to have to have a copy of Soul of a River in it.

— Steve Sheppard, One World Music Radio

“Across the Evening”, by ambient experimental guitarists Jon Durant and Robert Jürjendal, further extends the ambient/jazz/world crossover music both musicians have traversed throughout their diverse careers. Featuring appearances from Colin Edwin (UK) on bass, Aleksei Saks (Estonia) on trumpet, and Andi Pupato (Switzerland) on percussion, “Across the Evening” is a multi-dimensional, trans continental delight.

With sounds that caress and envelop, rhythms that percolate and inspire, the two guitarists nimbly play off each other and their guests, rarely allowing the listener to imagine that they are hearing guitars.

From the sublime “Reflective Sea” to the deep middle eastern vibe of “Beguiling Eyes”, the album crosses multiple stylistic boundaries. The final two tracks, “Return to Russia” and “Balkan Blue” are live recordings from the ensemble’s live performance in Tallin, Estonia in 2019.

We continually search the world for new and interesting music. It still ceases to amaze me how much different music and how many eclectic styles are out there. An open mind and an open ear are all that is needed. This recent exploration has led us to the discovery of the amazingly interesting Edwin Durant Kovtun project.

The 12-track album released on Alchemy Records lays it all out for the listener to be immersed in a new culture of sound. On the opener “Walking Wheel” we are let in with a modern guitar and drum sound that brings the past to life. As the expansive vocals of Inna Kovtun come in we are pushed back into our seat to prepare for a journey.

The amazing production skills of the trio are featured on “Black Cloud” with sounds bouncing all around the room coating it in a warm yet strong embrace. The lyrics do not need to be understood to feel what is being presented. The darkness is conveyed perfectly and gives us an air of hope. The ambient embrace continues on “Above My House” with sounds coming from all angles as the vocals take the lead to drive the power to the track. The energy is high. - (indi band guru)

Jon Durant’s “Alternate Landscapes” represents a remarkably unique approach to the guitar. Throughout the four extended compositions, the only instrument used is a guitar, though at no time is it obvious that a guitar is being played. The material includes some overt references to some of the music that inspired Durant as a teenager in the 1970s, including Tangerine Dream and Fripp & Eno. Durant’s vision on “Alternate Landscapes” was one of extensive sonic vistas, taking time to unfold but deeply engaging throughout. At times lush and beautiful and other times dark and disturbing, the landscapes evolve slowly and evocatively.

If ever any set of compositions deserved to be the definition of beautiful, it is ‘Parting Is’ by long time guitarist (multi-instrumentalist) and composer Jon Durant. Jon describes this as his most personal solo (and this is all done by him and him alone) yet. He lists his chosen instruments on each song and they include ‘cloud guitar’, electric 12 string guitar, fretless guitar, fretless bass, and electric guitar. The arrangements are paramount.

— artrockin.com

One of Edwin’s most high-profile projects is Burnt Belief, a collaboration with American guitarist Jon Durant. Their third all-instrumental album, Emergent, is so richly textured in its sonic dimensions that it feels virtually tactile.

On The Confidence Of Ignorance, the smooth sheets of Durant’s guitar offers a dynamic contrast to the bumpy braille of Edwin’s bass. Notes ping, reverberate and echo like sonar emissions during the minimalist Until the Stars Go Out. The ethereal Ghosts Aquatic levitates thanks to drummer Vinny Sabatino’s subtle touch and the way Durant’s notes seem to hang suspended in the air. Best of all is the title track, where Edwin plays whorls of bass in a style that’s as distinctive as a fingerprint. Somehow, Durant makes his sinuous, effects-laden guitar sound like a snake charmer’s woodwind instrument. Burnt Belief might be labelled new age or fusion, but those terms seem too fusty for music this colourful and vibrant.

— Prog Magazine

Their 2012 self-titled debut posited a lithesome fusion-style sound that drew upon electronica, ambient and world music. As good as that was, this follow-up offers more bite and presence. This can be attributed in part to Durant and Edwin’s decision to use real drummers, rather than relying on electronically driven beats, and also to the greater compositional depth and focus here. Forthright playing from Durant encompasses daring Allan Holdsworth-style leaps between chordal twists and turns, as well as breathy trumpet-like wisps across twinkling harmonics and drifting electronic storm clouds. Edwin at times channels an Eberhard Weber-like silkiness via fretless bass, and the thoughtful duet Hover, fuelled by his melodic upright bass, quietly steals the show. Strong tunes coupled with a welcome lack of showy technique provide an unfussy, showboating-free set that rewards repeated listening.

— Prog Magazine

One of 2012's album of the year because of its essential purity, its bold artistic audacity and an unashamed reverence to truly spiritual philosophies. Edwin otherwise stamps his seemingly overlooked talent with the highest marks for creativity and loyalty to the power of the low-end. Ideally, a great late night chill music suggestion. A 4.5 rating for most progfans but if you are a bass fetishist like me, we have to go the full Monty 5 scalded convictionsProg Archives

— Prog Archives

Joined by Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin, global percussionist Jerry Leake, and techno-tribal violinist Caryn Lin, Durant elicits enticing riffs, mysterious melodies, cloud guitar atmospheres, and seductive solos from his PRS guitars. His tones are pure and sweet--modulated with deft whammy manipulations á la Rypdal and Torn--melding seamlessly with the album's Eastern-flavored ambient grooves.

— Guitar Player Magazine

Jon Durant, Tony Levin & Vinny Sabatino. Another new CD, another set of challenges. This time a whole new set of textures result from the use of 12 string guitars replacing the tuned percussives. Vinny's back to playing hand drums on this record, whereas it was all kit on the last one. Tony's here on stick, upright, and 5 string bass, and Jon's playing fretless on a couple of tunes. There's an interesting flow to the record, alternating between heavier rhythmic bits and more ambient things. And in spots it's a fair bit heavier than anything Jon's done to date. There's also something he's never done on record before, which is a cover song. (A solo guitar version of Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes the Flood”)

— artist-shop.com

Ambient, expansive, far-reaching, progressive jazz fusion that doesn't shy away from the intimate and dives without hesitation into the adventurous. With swirling guitars, thick bass and minimalistic, cyclic grooves, the album encircles the listener with an aromatic, dewy atmosphere. Jon Durant weaves a moody, feeling sound tapping into new age and pop writing- one might even hear distant echoes of something Sting-like. This is jazz fusion at its most expressive and colorful.

— CDBaby.com

Brief Light is an exquisite, continually fascinating album by an artist who is expert at shaping sound in evocative and multidimensional ways. It is well worth experiencing.

— Jazz Times Magazine

Anatomy of a Wish continues the fine discography Jon Durant has offered of otherworldly guitar textures and haunting dreamscapes. Durant's slick guitar wizardry and multifaceted effects are the backgrounds for trance and shifting inner worlds -- each piece alive with deep imagination and undisputed creative vision. Durant excels on guitar, cloud guitar, and his usual array of amazing sonic manipulations. He is firmly established now as one of the reigning masters of what might be called "infinitely manipulated atmospheric guitar effects."

— allmusic.com

If you like David Torn, Michael Brook, Robert Fripp, Tony Levin, Eno, Steve Tibbetts, Steve Hackett each at their infinite guitar, textural guitar, "cloud guitar," guitar soundscaping, reverby, echo delay, loops, sustainesque best...then Jon Durant is for you. The nine tracks are atmospheric, upbeat Levin/Manring jazzy, Torn funky, Brook spaced and Eno visioned masterpieces. This is the BEST collection of this type of guitar work I have ever heard.

— allmusic.com

"In the liner notes to his debut, Durant thanks his heroes - David Torn, Robert Fripp, Allan Holdsworth, Bill Frisell, Terje Rypdal, etc. - preparing you for the delicate but disturbed instrumental passages that await within. This Boston-area guitarist weaves dark, gossamer chords (with heavy processing) to create textures reminiscent of the '70's fusion sound created on the noted ECM label. In similar fashion, 'Three If By Air' is elegantly twisted stuff."

— Guitar Magazine