To be hailed as a "poor man's something" is the most ineffectual kind of compliment -- one implying both a resemblance to something great, yet at the same time a failure to reach the mark set by the standard holder. That said, it is with the most kindness that somewhere between my fourth and fifth listen to Alexandria, VA native A Thousand Years' debut recording of the same name, I found it hard not to dub them the poor man's Air. Sonically, A Thousand Years resembles most closely the work of Air's ethereal Motion Picture Score for The Virgin Suicides both in sound and theme. Haunting, gossamer and purely instrumental, it seems cut from the same cloth as the 2000 release, except slightly less. Presumably recorded on a budget somewhat smaller than the acclaimed French band has to work with, A Thousand Years boasts a smaller range of instrumentation, but makes ample use of its resources at hand. The production seems significantly better than one would expect from a laptop recording. The length of the album -- just over 23 minutes -- seems to reinforce the idea of being "just slightly less" than the flag bearer. However, the content does stand up well to analysis. The bookends stand out as competent summations of the artist's talent and vision. The opening "Into the Woods" lasts solely 70 seconds but catches the listener off guard with a lingering beginning before fading into silence. The closing title track also shows this is no pure rip-off of other bands' ideas with crunchy guitar work layered over orchestral strain, showing invention one doesn't often see in instrumental work. The tempo change and melodic shift in the middle of "Land of the Living" also shows a musical capacity beyond the standard repetition many homebrew instrumentalists reveal, and the melodic "See the Spirits" practically begs for radio play with pop sensibilities intertwined with ambient resonances. The album as a whole should be recommended to fans of the genre, not only because of its resemblance to an existing leader in ambient music, but because it truly does bring some new ideas to the table. Review by Jaron at www.bigyawn.net

Washington DC natives might recognize Greg Pearson from his stint as guitarist for Umber, a hard rock outfit that disbanded and found Pearson not just working on a solo project but also forming his own label Horizon Recordings. A Thousand Years may sound like a departure from the hard rock format with its ambient leanings and aural pleasures but on songs like “Land of the Living” and “Angel Overcome” you can hear majestic melodies that many rock groups yearn to orchestrate. What might shadow the musical genius of the album is the almost conceptual flow of the entire record, which could easily be mistaken for a recorded brook or stream whose waters effortlessly bounce about the strewn rocks and littered shores. Look skyward my friends as this may be one of the best ambient pieces to delight upon in a thousand years to borrow a phrase. Review by J-Sin at Smother.net http://www.smother.net/reviews/modernrock.php3?ID=505

The guitar has long been the subject of all forms of abuse, manipulation, reinvention and deconstruction; as a postmodern soundmaking tool, it's the true protagonist of this intimate recording. Although presented as an exercise in dark ambience, and linked by various reviewers to Air, Nine Inch Nails and Brian Eno, A Thousand Years goes successfully beyond pastiche or homage. Its airy, ghostlike sketches of processed timbre and vertical sound (as featured on quiet tracks like "Into The Woods" and "Angel Overcome") ultimately seem like a timid, unassuming offshoot of the shoegaze aesthetic. Most of the album's ideas were stored for a long time in a box under Thousand Years factotum Greg Pearson's bed, but the scattered concepts only coalesced into a cohesive body of work when a close member of his family passed away. It's no surprise, then, that the lingering, dreamy coils of heavily effected guitar (minimal bass/drum accompaniments are added on three tracks) and poetic soundscapes convey a deep, intense sense of loss and sadness. Opaque cathedrals of massive reverb and delay, weeping, spidery two note melodies, and looped clouds of hushed arpeggios float and drift with lazy lyricism. Pearson must have learned his crucial formative lessons from landmark recordings like The Cocteau Twins' acoustic pre-Raphaelite phantasmagoria Victorialand, Loveless's six-string alchemy of liquified noise, Eno's literally organic feel on the On Land field recordings experiment and Slowdive's lachrymose walls of treated distortion. Unlike these precedents, though, Pearson subtly achieves a meditative but serene, even uplifting personal take on his stylistic references. It sounds like the very experience of mourning, something that people who've gone through the loss of a loved one will surely understand on more vivid terms; a song like "The Dead" is very likely to make your heart shrink, only by virtue of its devastatingly fragile timbres. Split into pulseless mutant-dirgelike mood pieces (the aforementioned "Into The Woods") and more rhythmically pronounced ambient pop ("Land Of The Living"), these seven instrumentals will actually move you. It's a touching reminder of our condition of mere mortals -- and thankfully, it's comforting, without sounding morbid, desperate or exploitative. -- Review by Marco Rivera at Splendid Magazine

I'd be hard pressed to categorize this CD under the label of "ambient," as the artist does. Although A Thousand Years (secret identity Greg Pearson) works with some soft electronic textures, most of the songs here infuse the electronica with a solid pop sensibility that truly lends it more character. You don't often get "hooks" in ambient music, but they're here. "Land of the Living" is an uptempo guitar piece that leads nicely into the more understated (and ambient) "Angel Overcome." And "See the Spirits" is practically begging to be rounded out with lyrics that would net it some radio airplay. This debut CD is an excellent piece of guitar instrumental tunes cradled in a strong understanding of ambient tones. - Review by Hypnagogue http://www.braindrizzle.netfirms.com/reviews.htm