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 aims to produce perfect, identical, replicable copies to sell on the mass market. It would seem impossible that any personal…
Tag: 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 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…
Japanese Guitar Music 4 (Toru Takemitsu, Ichiro Nodaira, Tami Nodaira) played by Shin-ichi Fukuda with Shigenori Kudo, Naxos 2018 on #neuguitars #blog
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573911 The classical guitar was an ideal medium for Takemitsu, combining subtleties of sonority with a wide range of timbres. Within a short time, he was acknowledged as one of the 20th century’s most formidable masters of writing for guitar. He brought to the instrument a unique sensibility and an imaginative flair for its colours…
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,…
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…
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…
Thurston Moore and “Spirit Counsel”‘s late style on #neuguitars #blog
https://www.thurstonmoore.com/ https://thurston-moore.lnk.to/SpiritCounselWE Thurston Moore. Thinking of ignoring Thurston Moore is the stupidest thing that a fan of guitars and experimental music can think about. An act of free ignorance. An act of free arrogance. The problem is another. Where to start? Moore is one of those artists who … well, you don’t know how he…
Diego Castro Magas’s discography on #neuguitars #blog
https://www.diegocastromagas.com/ Impressive. If you have never listened to Diego Castro Magas, get ready. He’s really awesome. I had noticed his talent a decade ago, for one of those fortuitous events that are the periodic demonstration that luck doesn’t exist. I was on the cdbaby website and I had set up a search by entering “guitar”…
Three Free Radicals: avangarde ambient music, Scott L. Miller & Mart Soo on #neuguitars #blog
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1zuab9OQ7LvbCmsUPtE97T http://www.scottlmiller.net/index.php/bio/ https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart_Soo Apparently free radicals are not quiet entities. In chemistry, a free radical is defined as a very reactive molecular entity with a very short average life, consisting of an atom or a molecule formed by several atoms, which presents an unpaired electron: this electron makes the radical extremely reactive, able to bind…
Andy Aledort and Bobby Lee Rodgers’ rock, thanks to Long Song Records,on #neuguitars #blog
http://www.longsongrecords.com/ Let’s talk about blues rock and we let’s do it by putting together two great records side by side, two records smilar for ideas, conception and spirit, and different for the approach on the electric guitar sound. In a way, listening to them is like taking a mental leap. Both are the continuation of…
