Cheryl Gunn - The Sun at Midnight (1999)

Keyboardist Cheryl Gunn brings a melodic sensibilty together with a strong feminine influence, resulting in a splendid landscape of vibrant musical color. With husband and co-collaborator Nicholas Gunn included on several tracks, this album has a familiar quality, yet is distinctive to Cheryl’s own musical gifts.

"I love the idea of letting the listener ascribe personal meaning to the songs I write. For me, The Sun At Midnight is about hope, personal faith and inspiration. In my mind, even at the bleakest of times, there is always hope, and just cause you can't see the sun doesn't mean it doesn't exist. That theme, however, can be applied in many ways. Ultimately its meaning lies within one’s own imagination. It could represent a ray of light in one’s darkest hour or it could simply be a full moon on a clear night lighting up the landscape as the sun would during the day. I love to encourage people to create their own place in my music, to get lost in it as a soothing escape from an often stressful world. Working together with Nick on these projects and being together practically twenty-four hours every day has been tremendously challenging, but also highly rewarding. We find that our strengths and weaknesses compliment each other and make for a successful relationship both personally and professionally." ~Cheryl Gunn

"With the release of The Sun at Midnight, Cheryl takes us on a musical journey of love and romance through the ages of time. Listen to slices as the title cut and 'Venus Over Skye' as Cheryl creates dreamy, sweeping moonscapes with synthesizer layers enhanced by melodic piano lines, along with flute, guitar, cello and viola. Along with some help from husband Nicholas, Cheryl offers up slices as 'Au Par Au Bellum', the rhythmic 'Seeker’s Quest', the seriousness of 'Beyond the Blue' and the fierceness of 'Temple Cat'. Second half happenings have 'Mirror of Mercy', the reverberating 'Echo of Time', plus 'Rab-Un Naw', the flighty 'Gossamer Wings', 'The Forever Garden' and the sun sets for Cheryl following 'Legend'. Passionate feminine melodic sensability from the multi-talented Cheryl Gunn!" ~Bob Morello, Boston Post-Gazzette

"Cheryl Gunn's 1999 album The Sun At Midnight, the Southern-California native turns inward for inspiration. The CD title refers to finding light in darkness, while the lyrics from the title track are adapted from Shakespeare sonnets. Gunn possesses the unique gift of creating vibrant, visual images through her music. Therein lies the beauty of this recording. With its lilting piano melody and gentile vocal harmonies, 'Mirror of Mercy', brings to mind a couple gracefully dancing. Complete with bagpipes, 'Au Par Au Bellum' is a tribute to Gunn's Scottish heritage; the title being the Gunn clan family motto meaning 'either peace or war'. Besides playing keyboards and percussion, Gunn produced, arranged and composed these songs along with co-collaborator and husband Nicholas Gunn-a top contemporary instrumentalist flutist with a string of his own releases." ~Lorraine Gennaro, CDNow

"Cheryl Gunn's Earthtone Records debut The Sun At Midnight is a radiant ode to maintaining optimism and hope in a world that is all too often filled with darkness. Blending lyrical melodies, lush and sensual production textures the versatile keyboardist/composer shares an immensely personal journey towards self-discovery with her listeners. Helping her convey this powerful message of personal redemption are flutist husband Nicholas Gunn (one of instrumental music's most popular artists who recently signed to Earthtone) as well as Andy Abad Garcia (guitars), Umberto Ferria (viola) and Amanda Archer (cello). For Gunn, one of the true joys of creating instrumental music is allowing the colors of the instruments and sounds to convey the meaning, just as a lyric would in a pop song." ~Steppin' Out Magazine

All songs produced, composed and arranged by Cheryl Gunn. Tracks 2, 8, and 10 composed and arranged by Cheryl Gunn and Nicholas Gunn. Flutes written by Nicholas Gunn. Lyrics from The Sun At Midnight adapted from sonnets by William Shakespeare. Cheryl Gunn plays piano, keyboards, synthesizers, vocals, congas, percussion; Andy Abad-Garcia: guitars; Umberto Ferria: viola; Amanda Archer: cello.

tracklist:

01. The Sun At Midnight
02. Venus Over Skye
03. Au Par Au Bellum
04. Seeker's Quest
05. Beyond The Blue
06. Temple Cat
07. Mirror Of Mercy
08. Echo Of Time
09. Rab-Un-Naw
10. Gossamer Wings
11. The Forever Garden
12. Legend

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