Steve Orchard has a wonderfully relaxed style of acoustic and synth based, symphonic instrumental music that at times echoes the likes of Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream and Michel Rother while always maintaining an individuality that is clearly ‘Steve Orchard’.
‘Listening for a Heartbeat’ invites us to share another cosmic journey full of imaginative themes, rhythmic delights and strong orchestration, all underpinned with excellent guitar work and strong synth work.
There are great arrangements here, with occasional use of vocal textures adding a very classy layer on tracks like ‘Operetta’ and ‘Signal House’. But it is Steve’s excellent guitar work that deserves special mention because it is the understated way in which the guitar layers are incorporated into the music that enables his music to rise so far above similar music of the genre. Add that to the excellent synth work on tracks like, for example, the haunting opening section of ‘A Confidence In Heaven’, and you have a really classy offering.
There were also times on ‘Listening for a Heartbeat’ when we were reminded of some of the great synth album of the 1980’s, not just because of a few  musical similarities, but simply because of the feeling of adventure in listening to something new and different.
The artist himself thinks this album might be his best work to date…it’s difficult to disagree with that.