Similar coastal landscapes adorn the sleeves of veteran Scottish guitarist Ian Melrose's two new records, both on the German guitar label Acoustic Music Records. The solo album has a further, deep German connection. The subtitle of Swirling Sands is Music from Kühlungsborn, referring to a Baltic seaside town where Melrose was invited to be artist in residence. If the Baltic coast evokes still, misty, rather chilly scenes, then the music Melrose composed and arranged in the town certainly fits the bill (helped by low whistles and flutes). Melrose has a quiet musical spirit. His delicately picked tunes ebb and flow, with hints of the blues and a demonstrable love for dance; the music here includes medleys picked up in northern Germany and over the border in Denmark.

Celtic Guitar Journeys is a three-way collaboration with Welsh and Breton guitarists Dylan Fowler and Soïg Sibéril; the trio joined up to delve deeper into each of their regions of Celtic music. The same neatness of sound is here, but with a thicker texture: three guitars weave in and out of phrases, and a lap-steel guitar (from Fowler) and whistles (Fowler and Melrose) occasionally broaden the instrumental palette. Again, dance tunes feature strongly alongside more impressionistic pieces. And as on Swirling Sands, the overall atmosphere is refined without being emotionally distant.