While my faves listed here focus on instrumental music once again a number of albums made the list either due to the organic feel of the recording or the genre the artist is associated with. Yet despite the presence of a few commercially viable artists it was the independents that once again that totally enthralled my ears.

Although I had my eyes focused on Jim Gabriel’s highly impressive debut and Ryan Stewart’s continued successful streak, it was the very last minute entry of Kelly Andrew’s highly dramatic and colorful Epoch Dawn that took very top honors. His creation screams epic music, somewhat in the tradition of ES Posthumus and Thomas Bergersen, and was such a late entry that I have not even had the time to review it yet.

Nevertheless if you made this list your music moved me and as always I want to thank the artists that were willing to risk a critique and also spend part of their promotional budget by investing in a review. Thank you for that honor.

In addition to the albums listed below, the 2014 Honorable Mentions includes the missed 2013 releases of
- Steven Vitali’s Language Of The Soul
- The Luminous World Orchestra’s Moments From The Life Stories of Stranger Part One