Dagger Moth plays her silk: Silk around the marrow by Dagger Moth (Sara Ardizzoni) Audioglobe, 2016 https://daggermothmusic.bandcamp.com/ http://saraardizzoni.wixsite.com/dagger-moth Listening to a record is less trivial thing than it might seem. I don’t use spotify, I don’t listen to mp3 on my smartphone. I want the records, CD or LP, better the CD. And I listen…
Category: Review
The blues and the isolationist gospel played by Stian Westerhus on #neuguitars #blog
https://stianwesterhus.bandcamp.com/ https://houseofmythology.com/releases/view/stian-westerhus-redundance Westerhus was expected. You don’t throw a record like “Amputation”, you don’t leave such a concept in suspense without the listener expecting a raise, a new episode, a continuation or a denial. One answer, and the answer is “Redundance”, the catharsis. This record arrived the moment the world closed in Covid-19’s emotional, empathic…
The light and serenity of Ratko Zjaca: The Places You Will Go and Light In The World on #neuguitars #blog
http://www.ratkozjaca.com/ About one year ago I wrote a review for the record of a skilled jazz guitarist, Ratko Zjaca. The album was titled “Life on earth” and offered elegant and clean jazz, with a first-rate arrangement and production work. I wrote: “The Nocturnal Four do a perfect job, smooth and with an almost aerodynamic, pulsating…
Images and surfaces: Le Retour A ‘la Raison by Teho Teardo, Specula, 2015 on #neuguitars #blog
http://www.tehoteardo.com/it/opera/album/le-retour-la-raison/ “This album is about a unique meeting with Man Ray. Unique because silent films directors are all dead!“ Flashback. We are in 2015. We took a step back and are listening to this CD, Le Retour A ‘la Raison by Teho Teardo. What is kinematic music? David Shea defines it this way in his…
Alberto Mesirca plays Vicente Asencio, Brilliant Classics, 2020 on #neuguitars #blog
https://www.brilliantclassics.com/articles/a/asencio-complete-guitar-music/ Vicente Asencio (Valencia 1908 – 1979) “Vicente Asencio is part of the group of Spanish composers who dedicated some compositions to Segovia characterized by a late-Impressionist language, but of popular origin. The Suite Mistica is composed of three pieces inspired by the evangelical tradition and the dedicatee recorded it in 1977. It was the…
Other forms of chamber music for guitar: Lo scuro Informe by PhreeAngles and Scot Ray Quartet on #neuguitars #blog
https://scotray.bandcamp.com/album/scot-ray-quartet https://phreeangles.wixsite.com/phreeangles The guitar never ceases to amaze us, constantly proving to be an instrument capable of always adapting to different and innovative contexts. Maybe I’m wrong. The instrument may have characteristics that make it so flexible and adaptable to the times, society and cultural needs that it expresses, but the difference, innovation, desire is…
The first collection of 4’33 ”, the first collection of the versions of silence. 45’18” on #neuguitars #blog
https://www.discogs.com/it/Various-4518/release/633979 http://www.kormplastics.nl/ This record belongs to the category of musical objects that delight collectors and researchers. We are in 2002 and the obscure Korm Plastics label in Amsterdam makes this CD entitled 45’18 “which contains nine versions of 4’33” by various artists, or more precisely some versions plus some tributes to the piece. Korm Plastics…
History, postmodernism, quotes: three Blinds for the guitar, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Joe Death and Blind Sun on #neuguitars #blog
How to define Blind Willie Johnson’s style? Gospel or Blues? Good question, from the formal point of view in fact his music and his way of singing can be considered blues, but the lyrics of his songs derive directly from the spirituals and hymns, they are biblical parables, prayers, invocations to the Lord. The story…
Contemporary chamber music, surfaces and textures, Teho Teardo and Ellipses dans l’harmonie, Spècula, 2020 on #neuguitars #blog
http://www.tehoteardo.com/it/opera/album/ellipses-dans-lharmonie/ I tried to write this post I don’t know how many times now. I think I tried for a couple of years, repeatedly, methodically and every time I scrambled, rewrote, added and removed. Every time Teho screwed me, when I was convinced I had it he screwed me. He was releasing a new record….
The chamber music for guitar of the composer Sofija Gubajdulina: GUBAIDULINA, S .: Guitar Works (Complete) (Tanenbaum) on #neuguitars #blog
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573379 Most of Sofija Gubajdulina’s works are instrumental chamber music. Such an interest in chamber genres is easily explained, given the great possibilities of performance that they offer even with a small number of musicians, and it should not be forgotten how much important is for Gubajdulina the real sound of the composition. But not…
The virtuous process of Markus Reuter, “Truce”, MoonJune Records, 2020 on #neuguitars #blog
https://markus-reuter-moonjune.bandcamp.com/album/truce Markus Reuter’s new album, Truce, released in 2020 for the praiseworthy MoonJune Records, has stimulated some reflections on the role of the virtuoso in the field of popular music and on the musical structure adopted by those who continue to renew and innervate that branch of rock music, known as “Progressive”. There is no…
When Ambient becomes a positive darkness: “The Wharmerall” by Silvia Cignoli on #neuguitars #blog
Some time ago I published an article on the collection “Ambient 4: Isolationism”. Speaking of Isolationism, I wrote ”Isolationism seems to create the perfect soundtracks for films and stories about the destruction of the world or mass annihilation, diagnosed in response to the overpopulation of the planet. The empty soundscape, moreover, seems to be intimately…
