“These instrumentals are propelled by a restless breeziness that carries them beyond the familiar landscapes of folk…. A shimmering beauty.”
— Uncut
“…prolific mid-Wales musician Toby Hay with yet another gorgeous release by the skilful guitarist”
— The Guardian
"New Music For The 12 String Guitar is a humble title for this magical work of vast melodic scope."
— RnR Magazine
"Humanity pours forth from every note on this rewarding collection. Images of dew-soaked countrysides emerge as the pastoral folk settings play, the guitarist gifted with an ability to evoke the soul-nourishing rapture of outdoor landscapes not yet despoiled by human intervention. Here's hoping Hay never loses his ability to translate authentic experience into music of equivalent character."
— Textura
"Toby Hay is a master player and this album, his fourth, is a complete delight from his first raga like chord to its final notes of future promise."
— Fatea
"Each time I listen to these twelve tracks though I hear a new phrase, a different melody that suggests a different mood, an alternate vision. It’s a sound-shifting record in a very positive way and completely captures the excitement and revelation of genuinely new music being made.”
— Caught by the River
"I say it is full of human warmth, but it is also tinged with wildness, and this I think is the beauty of Toby Hay, and of New Music For The 12 String Guitar in particular: he is able to convey multiple different emotions and represent multiple objects or landscapes, often simultaneously, and all with nothing more than a single instrument. This is the sign of a master musician at work, and Hay certainly fits that description. It is only two years since his debut and he is already one of the finest guitarists of his generation.”
— Folk Radio
“He has already developed a name for creating ethereal sounds that are rooted in a sense of place. It puts him within the wider explosion within the arts that is informed by a study of the natural world…. It’s dreamy, elusive, and appears to have all the time in the world.”
— Songlines
"The genre-defying result is a startlingly assured, often deeply beautiful album that renders by now over-familiar points of reference totally fresh and which, if given the attention it so richly deserves, will become a hypnotic, habit-forming listen.....This is music that proves powerfully potent at evoking crystal-clear images of the places and moments that may have inspired it.”
— Line of Best Fit