[4] Lopatin cited producer Teo Macero's tape editing work with Miles Davis in the late-1960s/early-1970s as an inspiration for the sessions.

"[3] Instrumental Tourist received generally favorable reviews from critics, with an aggregate score of 73 out of 100 on Metacritic.

[2] AllMusic wrote that "Lopatin and Hecker take the sounds in their intentionally limited palette to places they may never have been expected to go, and the journey is intriguing and frequently lovely.

"[9] In a less positive review, XLR8R wrote that "despite scattered flashes of brilliance, too often it's an album that feels unambitious, as though it's content to dwell in the middle ground where the two producers' back catalogs intersect rather than forge something new.

"[13] Uncut wrote that "as sublime as much of Instrumental Tourist is, it rarely fulfills that promise of improvisation, of a real sonic engagement or play, and struggles to exceed the sum of its parts.