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 eventually transitioned toward mostly guitar-based instrumental music.

Of Guyanese heritage, he’s long been drawn to Caribbean tropical influences and began releasing a series of Caribbean-influenced works, starting with his 2014 EP Sand in My Shoes, which he followed a year later with his EP Blue.Green.Aquamarine, then 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”. The following year he released “Dark Riders“, a six and a half minute long instrumental track inspired by composers like Stravinsky, music scores of early TV westerns, and 60s surf instrumentals, accompanied by a clever and quirky animated video. (You can read my review here.) Last year, he released “Eeza Gomes”, a fun mambo pop song written in memory of his late, beloved Guyanese aunt, along with a whimsical video. The song’s title “Eeza Gomes” is a colloquial Guyanese (creolese) way of saying, “He’s a Gomes.”

Now Terry’s back with a wonderful new instrumental single “A Recurring Thought“, accompanied by a tender and heartwarming video. Composed and arranged by Terry, and recorded and mixed by Steve Foley, the song is the first single from his forthcoming album Some Chunes, scheduled for release on April 8th. For the recording of the track, Terry played the rhythm and classical guitar parts, and Arien Villegas played congas.

Describing it as “a poignant song of longing in which a repeated musical phrase (leitmotif) represents a recurring thought“, Terry elaborates on his inspiration behind the song and accompanying video: “‘A Recurring Thought’ began as a simple musical exercise using a leitmotiv (a repeating musical figure representing a person, situation, place, emotion…In the case of the music, it represents a thought that someone can’t escape from. The video has three elements; the sad musician, a gold sand dollar necklace and a remote tropical island. What exactly happened, what he’s remembering, and how these other two elements relate to him, is ultimately up to the listener.“

“A Recurring Thought” is a really lovely and tranquil instrumental piece, the perfect antidote for these quite troubling times. So sit back, put on your headphones, and let those warm guitar notes and gentle congas envelop and sooth you. 

To learn more about Terry, visit his Website

Find his music on Apple Music / Amazon Music / YouTube