This could have been so much better. The American landscape, all of its beautiful vistas and wondrous cultures--it seemed like a perfect project for Arkenstone, whose evocative portraits of times and places--both real and imagined--have made him one of instrumental music's best composers over the past decade and a half. This is a nicely done set, but it comes frustratingly close to being great. It resembles in tone and structure Arkenstone's "Citizen of the World" and "Spirit Wind," in that it is mostly sedentary slices of music punctuated by the occasional stirring anthem. Now, I didn't care for either of those efforts, but their fans may like this more than I do. I care more for his adventurous works, like "In the Wake of the Wind," "The Return of the Guardians," "Caravan of Light," and the Middle Earth album (which proves that Arkenstone would have been a great choice to compose the music for the trilogy). There ARE some good moments on "Sketches," tracks so well-done that they almost make up for the others. "New Day," the opening piece, has a nice, optimistic feel; "Full Sail" evokes some of the sweeping instrumentals Arkenstone does so well ("The Field of Cormallen" from the Middle Earth set comes to mind); and the dynamic "The American Journey," guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. I do have to admit that even the tracks I didn't care for were at least nicely composed; they just didn't inspire me as the aforementioned pieces did. As a whole, "Sketches" also reminds me of Michael Gettel's "Skywatching" and some of the works of David Lanz and Tingstad & Rumbel, plus a touch of Tim Janis. If you like David's more sedentary works, you may receive this better than I. If you enjoy his "adventurous" works more, then you may want to skip it.

The last few discs by David Arkenstone have been a let-down. Working with his wife Diane, he has watered down his music to the point of sounding like Yanni. The first song of this disc, "New Day" is the only keeper of the bunch. I can hear Arkenstone repeating phrases from his old music. This is a real disappointment considering he was once one of my favorite artists in this genre.

I came into the whole Arkenstone scene with "Return of the Guardians," which was (arguably) the final and most effective installment of David's adventurous "trilogy" phase. Subsequent albums have proven to be lighter, more casual, and more contemporary - an interesting shift for die-hard fans of David's early works.

However, I think as an artist one must try on different outfits from time to time. Sketches successfully demonstrates David's ability to craft radio-friendly (new age jazz?) songs that might appeal to the more casual listener. I'd say something similar happened with "Another Star in the Sky," which got a lot of radio play, and which probably piqued the listening ears of many budding Arkenstone fans.

"Sunset Highway" and "Pacific Rain" are, in my opinion, the finest tracks on this album, and demonstrate David's contemporary skills quite nicely. There are even a few cinematic moments throughout, such as on "Surrounded by Beauty."

His sound has changed gradually these past few years, but beneath it all, it's definitely still David Arkenstone at the helm.

I bought this CD as soon as I saw it listed, and wasn't disappointed. Maybe I'm such an Arkenstone fan that I can't see the flaws in his work, but this CD was satisfying all the way through. When I'm working at home on my computer, I find that the interesting melodies and intricate harmonizations relax me and help get me through one task and into another. Although I have most of David Arkenstone's CDs, this has become one of my favorites. I will probably buy several copies as Christmas gifts for my friends who enjoy new age music.

I bought this to listen to on a nine thousand mile drive across the USA and back. The third song, which I listened to while driving slowly through the Shenandoah Valley, was especially effective.

This has become one of my favorites; there are none of the dreadful commercial-jingle songs that marred earlier albums, with the cliche lyrics. Nothing but evocative music, which matched admirably with memories of subtle desert colors, spectacular waterfalls, striated mountains, forest green. Thank you, Mr. Arkenstone.