A selection of experimental guitar music from Neuguitars: Stephan Thelen, Markus Reuter, Sergio Sorrentino, Philip Glass, Fennesz and Takayanagi Masayuki
on Bandcamp
I love experimental music and I love the guitar. I listen to music every day and every week I select a CD or an LP from my record library and I try to write about it in the most accurate and intelligent way possible. But the music, the news, I listen to them on Bandcamp. I don't use Spotify.
This is a first selection from my most recent listens. Happy listening.
Rothko Spaces, Volume 2 by Stephan Thelen & Markus Reuter
Stephan Thelen is a composer, producer and mathematician based in Zürich, Switzerland. His activities are split into three main areas: 1) as composer, artistic director and guitarist of the Swiss minimal groove band SONAR, 2) as producer and guitarist for his Fractal Guitar and Fractal Sextet projects and 3) as composer of postminimal music ("Circular Lines", commisioned by the KRONOS QUARTET).
“The original concept of the ‘Rothko Spaces’ project - realized in volume 1 with David Torn - was to combine electric guitar performances (played with a massive amount of feedback and distortion) with the sounds of a string orchestra. For volume 2 and the involvement of Markus, the guitar was of course going to be replaced by touch guitar. Markus also took the feedback idea to the next level by setting up a sound system consisting of 5 cranked-up tube amps that made the whole tracking room a vibrating and unpredictable instrument with a sonic life of its own. There were microphones everywhere, including inside the grand piano (with the sustain pedal held down by a brick) and in the cellar (where you can hear the occasional car going by).”
Stephan Thelen, Bucharest, July 5th, 2024
Philip Glass: Mad Rush (Electric Guitar Version) by Philip Glass, Sergio Sorrentino
“A Superb Musician” (The Wire). Sergio Sorrentino is a 21st Century guitarist whose music ranges from ambient to classical, from blues to experimental. His CD Dream (Mode Records) was highlighted in the New York Times as one of the "Week’s Best Classical Music Moments”. He plays with great musicians like Gavin Bryars, John King, Elliott Sharp, Machinefabriek. He collaborated with Philip Glass.
Music | Sergio Sorrentino (bandcamp.com)
”"Mad Rush" is one of the most famous piano pieces by Philip Glass. Here is its first e-guitar rendition ever. Guitarist Sergio Sorrentino recorded it with the endorsement of Philip Glass and his publisher Dunvagen. The track is the third collab between Glass and Sergio after the success of the "Orphée's Bedroom" and "Opening" electric guitar versions.”
released April 5, 2024
Sognato di Domani by Fennesz
Fennesz uses guitar and computer to create shimmering, swirling electronic sound of enormous range and complex musicality. His lush and luminant compositions are anything but sterile computer experiments. They resemble sensitive, telescopic recordings of rainforest insect life or natural atmospheric occurrences, an inherent naturalism permeating each piece.
“'Sognato di Domani' is a new recording made by Christian Fennesz, completed in the context of his upcoming album due for release later this year. In parallel with making new work, we are planning to present a 20th anniversary release of 'Venice', which will be ready very soon in its remastered splendour. 'Sognato di Domani' fitted the complexion of this earlier 2004 classic quite exactly, and in many ways revitalises it. The track you will hear on the 'Venice 20' CD is an edited version of the digital release we present now: the full version. The photography is an out-take from the footage captured for 'Liquid Music', made in 2001 and planned for the technically impossible DVD release in 2005.”
released May 10, 2024
Mass Hysterism in Another Situation by Masayuki Takayanagi
Masayuki 'Jojo' Takayanagi (1932 - 1991) was a Japanese jazz / free improvisational musician. He was active in the Japanese jazz scene from the late 1950s. He was one of the earliest noise guitar improvisers, and the first (with Keith Rowe) to use the table-top guitar.
“Without producing a single phrase, the two distorted guitars became simple “electric sound” generators, and like fish swimming freely in water, they each tear through time in their own fashion. And yet there is a remarkable sense of unity to how they fill the world with electric vibrations. Is there a simpler, more beautiful music than this?
…on this date, with a sensitivity to sound reminiscent of Ayler’s Ghosts, the performance reaches a plateau… Takayanagi’s trio offered the gods of free jazz the most beautiful fruit in existence.” - Yoshiyuki Kitazato
released October 13, 2023
Personnel
Masayuki Takayanagi (electric guitar)
Akira Iijima (electric guitar)
Hiroshi Yamazaki (drum, percussion)