https://martsoo.bandcamp.com/releases https://martsookulgejad.bandcamp.com/releases Carl Wilson writes in his book “Let’s Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste”: “For a century and more sentimentalism has been the capital sin of aesthetics. To say that a work of art is sentimental necessarily means to condemn it.” True. Needless to deny it. Punk and Darmstadt’s contemporary…
Category: Review
A double CD, two sound spaces that mirror each other. Mirrored Spaces by Daniel Lippel, New Focus Recordings, 2019 on #neuguitars #blog
https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/daniel-lippel-mirrored-spaces I thought I was a decent record collector. I thought I have a good discoteque by now, especially as regards contemporary guitar music, but this record made me immediately review my positions. Do you know how many double cds I have of contemporary classical guitar? Nobody. And believe me, I have a lot of…
Cosmic journeys, solar winds, transcendent guitars and memories of John Coltrane. Solar Winds, Raoul Björkenheim’s new album on Long Song Records, 2020 on #neuguitars #blog
https://longsongrecords.bandcamp.com/album/solar-winds http://raoulbjorkenheim.com/ http://www.longsongrecords.com/ Life, like music, is a curious thing. Have a meeting, you forget it. After a few years you see that person again and you don’t remember. Coincidences. Randomness. But when the paths cross for a third, fourth, fifth time …. chance has nothing to do with it, either it was premeditated or…
The innovation of Erkan Oğur, the master of the fretless classical guitar on #neuguitars #blog
Erkan Oğur (born April 17, 1954) is a Turkish musician. Pioneer of fretless guitars, he invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976. As a composer, he influenced many musicians with his works, especially soundtracks, combining the sounds of classical music with ancient traditional music and Turkish folk music . He has performed all over…
The eternal circle of “In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni” by Stefano Pilia, Die Schachtel, 2019 on #neuguitars #blog
https://stefanopilia.bandcamp.com/album/in-girum-imus-nocte-et-consumimur-igni https://www.soundohm.com/product/decay-music-n-2-in-girum-imus-nocte-et-consumimur-igni-lp/pid/35098/ “But nothing translated this present without a way out and without rest like the ancient phrase that returns entirely to itself, being built letter by letter like a labyrinth from which you cannot get out, so that it matches so perfectly the shape and the content of perdition: IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE ET…
The new possibilities of Second Earth, by Jim McAuley and Scot Ray, Long Song Records, 2019 on #neuguitars #blog
https://scotray.bandcamp.com/album/second-earth https://longsongrecords.bandcamp.com/album/second-earth Some time ago I wrote a post dedicated to the world of Jim McAuley. In that post I wrote how Jim McAuley belonged to that curious category of musicians who do not just move within the known coordinates of their instrument. All true. I have been following this musician for years and every…
Ambient 4: Isolationism. Dark guitars, anguish and frost in a still alive music genre on #neuguitars #blog
In January 1995 the English music critic Simon Reynolds published on ArtForum an article entitled “ISOLATIONISM, genre survey/thinkpiece”. http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2007/11/isolationism-genre-surveythinkpiece.html In this article Reynolds investigated a new musical sub-genre coined by the critic Kevin Martin, defined as Isolationism. With this term they tried to give a connotation to a vast network of refugees, disenchanted by rock…
Disturbance, quotes and suspension in Tajs! by Officina F.lli Seravalle on #neuguitars #blog
http://www.lizardrecords.it/officina-f-lli-seravalle-tajs/ Seravalle Brothers’s Workshop (Officina) is a curious place. Basically it is one of those places where memories accumulate in neat piles along the walls, closer and around tools, and where they are found, reread, interrogated and re-proposed in new and curious ways. By doing this, the Workshop also fulfills another task: it not only…
Sonic Madonna or CICCONE YOUTH? «The Whitey Album» Blast First, ed/lp, 1988 on #neuguitars #blog
Ciccone Youth. Sonic Youth. Sonic Ciccone. What is it like to listen to the Whitey Album more than thirty years after its release? At the time it was a blast! How? Sonic Youth!? The sonic ensigns, bearers of the avant-garde New York rock scene payed homage to Madonna, the lady of pop par excellence?! You…
Voice and guitars, two examples of possible contemporaneity: Beek! by Jakapi-Praestholm-Soo and Sul Filo by Iva Bittova and Paolo Angeli on #neuguitars #blog
https://jakapi-praestholm-soo.bandcamp.com/releases https://angelimanucheproductions.bandcamp.com/album/sul-filo What happens when the voice is not used as a voice and the guitar is not used as a guitar? In a nutshell what happens when voice and guitar are not used idiomatically? It happens that we enter unknown and exciting territories where the combinations and possibilities can be infinite with the the…
The conceptual complexity of Brian Ferneyhough. A mirror of our times on #neuguitars #blog
https://www.kairos-music.com/cds/0013072kai Over the past two or three decades, Brian Ferneyhough’s (1943) music has taken on an almost fetishistic quality. Although he isn’t one of the most represented living composers in the world (although the darkness of his music can be overstated), he is still one of the most frequently cited references among contemporary composers, both…
Simona Armenise’s electric guitar on #neuguitars #blog
http://newmodellabel.com/simona-armenise-feat-ares-tavolazzi-lotus-sedimentations/ https://simonaarmenise.bandcamp.com/releases I have to make amends. I receive many messages and emails from guitarists and record labels who offer me their music, often and willingly with a link on Spotify (which I don’t use) or on Bandcamp or on Soundcloud. Often and willingly these are interesting projects but it’is almost impossible for me to…
Peter Söderberg’s musical adventure on #neuguitars #blog
Peter Söderberg has always been an adventurous musician. As a lutist he recorded both Renaissance and Baroque music, but he also appeared on several contemporary music records. He also played in some jazz bands and also as a guitarist he played a lot of contemporary repertoire. I have two of his CDs in my archive…
The artistic parable of Stian Westerhus on #neuguitars #blog
“Today, however, the new shining star of the guitar is the audacious and fearless Stian Westerhus (born in 1979), winner with the Puma trio of JazzIntro in 2006. In the short span of a few years his artistic growth was inexorable. After the intriguing project with the Indian singer Swati Natekar, commissioned by BBC radio,…
Nippon Kokoro: Akira Ifukube – Works for Guitar and Baroque Lute, Fontec, 1991 on #neuguitars #blog
http://www.akiraifukube.org/home.htm 1 Toka, Cantilena Ballabile Sul Mode Antico di Giappone 2 Toccata Per Chitarra 3 Kugoka, Aria Concertata Di Kugo-Arpa 4 Fantasia For Baroque Lute Composed By – Akira Ifukube Guitar – Yoh Nishimura (tracks: 1-3) Lute [Baroque] – Deborah Minkin (tracks: 4) Akira Ifukube (伊福部 昭 Ifukube Akira; Kushiro, 31 maggio 1914 – Tokyo,…
Dither, the electric guitar quartet from New York on #neuguitars #blog
http://www.ditherquartet.com/ “The quartet concept: the gravitas of four corners, circle in square, life cubed and balanced.” Elliott Sharp, from the notes in the cd “Dither” Let’s start with giving some coordinates: who is Dither? The Dither is a quartet of electric guitars based in New York, which present a complex and sophisticated DNA based on…
Jim McAuley’s world seen through Long Song Records on #neuguitars #blog
http://www.longsongrecords.com/artists/jim-mcauley/ I approached the music of Jim McAuley indirectly. It all started with the purchase of “Vignes”made by Acoustic Guitar Trio, released by the Italian indipendent label Long Song Records way back in 2009. I admit it: I was attracted to Nils Cline and this record seemed like a good opportunity to listen to him…
Il mondo di Jim McAuley visto attraverso la Long Song Records su #neuguitars #blog
http://www.longsongrecords.com/artists/jim-mcauley/ Mi sono accostato alla musica di Jim McAuley indirettamente. Tutto è cominciato con l’acquisto di “Vignes” dell’Acoustic Guitar Trio, uscito sull’italianissima Long Song Records nel lontano 2009. Lo ammetto: ero attirato da Nils Cline e questo disco mi era sembrata una buona occasione per ascoltarlo al di fuori dei Wilco e feci bene a…
The cassettes’ return: Shimmering Behavior of IN/ELEKTRA, Industrial Coast, 2019 on #neuguitars #blog #girlspower
https://www.inelektramusic.com https://industrialcoast.bigcartel.com/product/in-elektra-shimmering-behaviour https://inelektra.bandcamp.com/releases Play.Stop. Fast-forward. Pause. Rewind. Forgotten gestures. I haven’t bought a cassete in over thirty years. And to listen to it I had to resurrect my dear old vintage Sony Walkman, yes, the Victorian forerunner of the ipods, a technology made in the ’80s that by now might sound nice to steampunk lovers….
“No Home Record”, Kim Gordon’s homeless record on #neuguitars #blog #girlspower
https://kimaltheagordon.com/ I’ll try to be diplomatic. There is more talent in one of the wrinkles that furrow the mature face of Kim Gordon, than in the erased grooves of all so-called current talents launched on Spotify. Last year I was impressed with the excellent “The Switch” released by the duo Body/Head, this year the lady…
