{"id":148537,"date":"2025-08-29T14:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T21:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=148537"},"modified":"2025-08-31T08:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T15:29:08","slug":"review-adrian-holovatys-layer-cake-is-an-irresistibly-joyful-acoustic-confection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/review-adrian-holovatys-layer-cake-is-an-irresistibly-joyful-acoustic-confection\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Adrian Holovaty\u2019s \u2018Layer Cake\u2019\u00a0Is an Irresistibly Joyful Acoustic Confection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within seconds of starting this self-released EP (<a href=\"https:\/\/adrianholovaty.bandcamp.com\/album\/layer-cake\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">available at Bandcamp<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/holovaty.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">holovaty.com<\/a>), there\u2019s a smile on my face\u2014and before the end of the first minute, I\u2019m grinning ear to ear, shaking my head, and asking: How does Adrian Holovaty bake so much sweetness into a two-and-a-half-minute instrumental?<\/p>\n\n\n<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"120\" style=\"position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/v=2\/track=4114657978\/album=3989156858\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, to start, there\u2019s a bottom layer of&nbsp;<em>la pompe manouche<\/em>, the foundational rhythm of Gypsy jazz, dampened to produce the lightest, simplest bit of propulsion. On these tracks, Holovaty plays the same part twice\u2014once with a pick on a 2016 Bob Holo Traditional, and once with his fingertips on a borrowed 2010 Martin 000-15M. From there, the rhythm tracks are stacked for maximum boom-chick, blending Holovaty\u2019s complementary tones of spruce and mahogany with the warm, rich sounds of Arnoud van den Berg\u2019s upright bass\u2014and carefully set aside to leave room for everything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/adrianholovaty.bandcamp.com\/album\/layer-cake\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Adrian_Holovaty-Layer-Cake-cover2000.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Adrian Holovaty, Layer Cake\u00a0(Self-released)\" class=\"wp-image-148539\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Adrian_Holovaty-Layer-Cake-cover2000.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Adrian_Holovaty-Layer-Cake-cover2000.jpg?resize=500%2C500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Adrian_Holovaty-Layer-Cake-cover2000.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Adrian_Holovaty-Layer-Cake-cover2000.jpg?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Adrian_Holovaty-Layer-Cake-cover2000.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Adrian_Holovaty-Layer-Cake-cover2000.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Adrian Holovaty, <em>Layer Cake<\/em>&nbsp;(Self-released)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, Holovaty\u2014an Amsterdam-based web designer best known as the creator of the web-based transcription tool <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soundslice.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Soundslice<\/a>\u2014adds melody and variations in layer after layer of acoustic guitar, sometimes as many as a dozen tracks, recorded and re-recorded in his home studio. The titles can be as breezy as \u201cSky Cruiser\u201d or \u201cThe Guarded Smile,\u201d and taken one at a time, some of the guitar parts are simple enough\u2014even when played twice. But others grow increasingly intricate, adding unlikely chord changes as they dance around melody and harmony. As the tracks are gently placed one atop the other, all the notes ring clear and sweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The more layers Holovaty adds, the lighter these instrumentals grow\u2014and by the time he\u2019s done, the combinations are irresistibly joyful, no matter how complex the architecture. Drawing from country, pop, and swing, they\u2019re tunes that flow beautifully, full of snap and crackle. And despite a track called \u201cLove and Candy,\u201d there\u2019s nothing here that\u2019s sugary. At all. The sweetness comes honestly, through the joyful, self-absorbed pleasure of constructing something lovely, shimmering, and perfectly full of pleasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five-song EP blends manouche rhythms and fingerstyle flourishes into intricate, buoyant instrumentals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":148538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Five-song EP blends manouche rhythms and fingerstyle flourishes into intricate, buoyant instrumentals.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[885],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1568],"class_list":["post-148537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1280px-Adrian_Holovaty_in_2009-photo-Matt-Biddulph.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":1568,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"kenny-berkowitz","display_name":"Kenny Berkowitz","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Kenny-Berkowitz-Photo_web.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Kenny-Berkowitz-Photo_web.jpg"},"author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148537"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148548,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148537\/revisions\/148548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148537"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=148537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}