Imaginary Roads

{{Music ratings

|rev1 = AllMusic

|rev1score = {{rating|4.5|5}}[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r82692|pure_url=yes}} AllMusic review]

|rev2 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

|rev2score = {{rating|3|5}}{{cite book |last1=Larkin |first1=Colin |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |date=2006 |publisher=MUZE |volume=1 |page=35}}

|rev3 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

|rev3score = {{rating|2.5|5}}{{cite book |title=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |date=1992 |publisher=Random House |page=5}}

}}

The Kingston Whig-Standard wrote that the album "consists mainly of [Ackerman] simply strumming his acoustic guitar ever-so-slowly ... five years ago this stuff sounded revolutionary and filled a need for baby-boomers who couldn't relate to the current musical marketplace."{{cite news |last1=Burliuk |first1=Greg |title=Remembering to Forget |newspaper=The Kingston Whig-Standard |date=November 19, 1988 |page=1}}

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Oxford University Press) describes Imaginary Roads as "one of guitarist William Ackerman’s finest albums, and the one where the new instruments Ackerman had been slowly adding to his sound through the 80s finally jelled with his distinctive playing. The result is that even on the duet pieces, Ackerman and his musical partners sound and feel like an actual band, not a composer and his sidemen. Interesting additions like shakuhachi flute, oboe, and fretless bass join the usual synthesizers, piano and violins, giving a variety and depth to the arrangements that is sometimes missing from Ackerman’s more monochromatic earlier albums."{{cite web |title=Ackerman, William - Imaginary Roads |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195313734.001.0001/acref-9780195313734-e-87029 |website=Oxford Reference |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=10 June 2024}}

1. "The Moment in Which You Must Finally Let Go of the Tether Which Has Held Your Hope Airborne" – 5:42
2. "A Region of Clouds" – 4:42
3. "If You Look" – 5:39
4. "Floyd's Ghost" – 6:18
5. "Wondering Again What's Behind the Eyes" – 5:50
6. "Dawn Treader" – 4:21
7. "The Prospect of Darrow's Barn and the Blossoms of an Apple Spring on Imaginary Road" – 3:03
8. "Brother A Teaches 7" – 2:57
9. "Innocent Moon" – 3:37
10. "The Moment – Reprise" – 0:37
11. "If You Look - Version II" - 5:30 [*]
12. "Darrow's Barn - Version II" - 3:05 [*]

• Recorded at Studio D, Sausalito, California, and Different Fur Recording, San Francisco, California.

• Allaudin Mathieu – piano on "The Moment in Which You Must Finally Let Go of the Tether Which Has Held Your Hope Airborne"
• Chuck Greenberg – Lyricon, Yamaha WX-7 wind synthesizer and Yamaha DX7 keyboard synthesizer on "If You Look"
• Michael Manring – fretless bass guitar on "If You Look" and "Brother A Teaches 7"
• Philip Aaberg – piano on "Floyd's Ghost"
• Kifu Mitsuhashi – shakuhachi flute on "Wondering Again What's Behind the Eyes"
• Jill Haley – oboe on "The Prospect of Darrow's Barn and the Blossoms of an Apple Spring on Imaginary Road"
• Charles Bisharat – violin on "Brother A Teaches 7"

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Category:Windham Hill Records albums

Category:1988 albums

Category:William Ackerman albums

Category:Albums produced by William Ackerman