Indeterminacy, algorithmic composition and digital generative systems are synonyms of drama, narrative exploration and emotionality in the music of Kenneth Kirschner and Joseph Branciforte, depicted in a volume published by Branciforte’s own label Greyfade and entitled From the machine Vol. 1
Kevin Kastning, Mark Wingfield – Rubicon I (greydisc, 2021)
Kevin Kastning, Soheil Peyghambari – The First Realm (greydisc, 2021)
Kevin Kastning, Sándor Szabó, Balázs Major – Ethereal IV (greydisc, 2021)
Rustici’s guitar often dialogues with an exaggerated array of electronic devices, creating landscapes of digital futurism perfectly counterpointed by an obsessively nunanced guitar playing, thanks to a masterful use of vibrato and tone
Harbour is an exploration of the world rooted deep and meaningful investigation of the folk traditions, only occasionally tinged by jazz, but eventually elicited by a strong use of the interplay within the trio. Yet none of this solves the riddle of how this album can be so hypnotically pleasant, so engaging, balancing humble moments of beauty through caressing listening
Dwelling in that area between map and territory, between the apparent calmness of the score and the deceiving ubiquitness of the improvisation, the marriage between electric guitar and harpsichord is a meeting of opposites in many ways. First, two instruments which are testaments of two very different traditions. But also two different conceptions of the score and the improvisation. That’s eventually a false opposition, and Mark Wingfield and Jane Chapman make an effort to prove it wrong in multiple ways. In their latest record Zoji, this time extended in a trio with the addition of percussionist Adriano Adewale, they prove even more that there’s a junction they can meet
Walking the thin line between excess and refrain, Humanbeing is a somber and masterful act of intimacy, an album devoted to explore the organicity of sounds, revolving through layers of increasingly blurred colors. Producer and pianist Rossano Baldini, the man behind the monicker Humanbeing, ventures in foggy landscapes bringing shimmering lights, gently driving the listeners through unexplicable undertows. Undulating between plaintive and joyful, yet deliberately choosing not to reach any of the two, his music is giftedly blurred and captivating
Quite some things have changed in the last 22 years of the four members of progressive supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment, but others have not. Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Sons of Apollo, Neal Morse), John Petrucci (Dream Theater), Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater, Dixie Dregs) and Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel) meet the challenge of replicating the electrifyng mix of virtuoso progressive comping and seamlessly fast execution shown in the initial two chapters and Liquid Tension Experiment 3 is a statemement for the future of instrumental metal progressive, no matter what has happened since chapter two
The Aristocrats’ method is not just fastest playing and ripping solos, but complex song structures that sit between rock and fusion, hiding complex rhythms and progressions, balancing microimprovisations, beneath catchy hooks that fish in basically any possible genre
Like a place I’ve been before, Stephan Thelen’s music retains that level of intimacy to my ear, whatever he plays. Exploration of rythmic fractals are, from the perspective of the Swiss guitarist, a neverending source of looking glasses and revolving doors that hint at a direction and take another. No surprise that Fractal Guitar 2, the sequel to the 2019 album on MoonJune Records, starts with a similar pattern with a the same line-up of incredibly high level of musicianship, but then veers in another place.
The minimalism of Nik Bärtsch’s pianism is disembodied and carried in a territory where repetition is not the pure sign of what we once called minimalism genre -and now should be called postminimalism. Through repetition he explores newer dimensions of expressions, digging in his reportoire and exploring again the depths of the expression.