Terry Gomes is a composer/guitarist from Ottawa, Canada who’s been involved with music his entire life, both as a musician, singer-songwriter and composer of instrumental music, and as a teacher of rock and classical guitar. (He also taught elementary school for 26 years.) He studied classical guitar/composition at the University of Ottawa, where he graduated with honors. Over the years, he’s played in several rock bands and as one half of a flute/classical guitar duo. After writing songs for others, he began recording his own music in 2006, releasing three albums featuring songs in the singer-songwriter/pop/folk-rock genres. He later transitioned toward mostly guitar-based instrumental music, beginning with the release of his album Shh., which featured a more jazz-oriented, easy-listening style. In 2015, he released his Caribbean-influenced EP Blue.Green.Aquamarine, which he followed with The Tropical Dream in 2018, a delightful concept album detailing a tropical vacation written while he recovered from a back injury.

In 2019, Terry released an instrumental single “Rumjaro 360”, in which he combined elements of rumba, jazz and rock, and in 2022, he released two beautiful piano-based singles, “Elegy” and the jazzy “Steen’s Reverie”. Now he returns with “Dark Riders“, a rather unorthodox rock guitar soundtrack he wrote several years ago, accompanied by a quirky animated video. For the recording of the track, Terry played all guitars, bass and organ, and Jeff Asselin played drums and percussion. Mixing was done by Steve Foley at Audio Valley Studios in Ottawa, and mastering by Jason Fee at Conduction Mastering.

“Dark Riders” is a six and a half minute long instrumental track with progressive elements, though Terry’s twangy guitars lend a strong Western vibe to the proceedings. I love his guitar work, and the spooky organ adds some great texture to the track. About the video, Terry says “Encompassing a surreal “dark ride” with Old West imagery, it follows an individual’s unexpected and unusual journey. I think of this project as a cross between David Lynch and Scooby Doo–somewhat creepy and surreal and yet, sort of, fun.” The fun and clever video was made with mostly black and white animation images created by Andres Olmos.

Find more of Terry’s music on Spotify / Apple Music / Amazon Music / YouTube / Website