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 […]
Category: Review
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
A Gibson 335 for Javier Rosario, Javier Rosario Trio Vol.1: A Celebration of Life on #neuguitars #blog
https://www.javierrosarioguitar.com/ A Gibson 335. A classic form for the iconicity of the electric guitar. A versatile, flexible guitar with an easily identifiable sound. An object of industrial design, the risult of a scale production that […]
When the melody goes beyond sentimentalism and becomes a positive thing: Mart Soo’s Kulg and Kulg II on #neuguitars #blog
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 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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
The eternal circle of “In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni” by Stefano Pilia, Die Schachtel, 2019 on #neuguitars #blog
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 […]
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”.[…]
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, […]
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 […]
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? […]
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 […]
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) […]
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 […]
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 […]
