Summer 2024
Zsófia Boros, "El Último Aliento," 2023
El último aliento is Vienna-based Hungarian guitarist Zsófia Boros's third recording for ECM's New Series and, like her previous releases Local Objects and En otra parte, it was produced by Manfred Eicher and pristinely
recorded at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano, Switzerland. Taking the title from the Carlos Moscardini composition that closes the album, Boros antedates that piece with an intimately meditative program twinning other
contemporary compositions from Argentina with the music of French composer Mathias Duplessy. The opening piece "De rêve et de pluie" by Duplessy properly sets the stage for what is to come with its subtly lissome
arpeggiated texture and mood. Joaquín Alem's "Salir ardentro" romantically follows and charms with its traditional late 19th-century aesthetic. In Quique Sinesi's "El Abrazo" Borus takes the title's meaning of 'hug'
to its mechanistically applicable heart by strapping a rubber band around her guitar strings to create a lulling percussive effect throughout the piece. Alberto Ginastera's nuanced and tango-tinged "Milonga," an
interpretation in miniature of the traditional South American dance, signals another suspenseful shifting of gears. The elegant opening four-note motive of Duplessy's "Le secret d'Hiroshigé" arrives dripping with
harmonics before giving way to fortissimo tremolo and pairing seamlessly with his spirited "Perle de Rosée." Turning then to Sinesi's second contribution to the program, "Tormenta de Illusion," Boros performs the
piece on the ronroco, an Andean instrument with ten strings arranged in five double courses similar to the charango but with a slightly lower range. The eponymous Moscardini finale arrives after a triptych of
Duplessy's lithe "Le labyrinthe de Vermeer" and two two Tárrega-esque dance pieces, "Berceuse" and "Valse pour Camille." When the final harmonics vanish in ritardando at the closing measures of "El último aliento,"
there is an initial tinge of disappointment that nothing new will follow. There is such a wealth of quiet complexity on offer, that returning to the beginning of this elegant program for a second listen could be
a remedy. It might be the only way to truly appreciate the totality of this extraordinary recording with its elements of suspense in thoughtful programming, the liquidity, nuance, and interpretive mastery of
Boros throughout, and the truly silent canvas achieved in a perfect amalgam of the hall, the engineer, and a master painter of sound.
Daniel Voth, "Harmonic Dreams," 2024
Harmonic Dreams, the fifth album by acoustic fingerstyle guitarist Daniel Voth, comprises fourteen tiny pieces that shimmer like sun on a field of grass and form an extended composition at turns eerie, soothing, sweet,
and unsettling. The album as a whole is given cohesiveness by various ruminative "Harmonic Dreams" sprinkled throughout (numbered 1-3 and ending with "Harmonic Dreams REM," perhaps meant to suggest the dream-state of
REM sleep). Harmonics are integral throughout, those bell-like chiming sounds that are so spectacular in guitar instrumental music. The album employs a slew of musicians to add layers and textures (among them Andy
Ellison, pedal steel; Nick Harris, electric guitar; Maria Grigoryeva, strings; Anup Sastry, drums; Meredith Moore, French horn; Merethe Soltvedt, vocals). The interplay creates an orchestral effect of which the guitar
is foundational. In his notes, Voth says he was influenced by the work of Hans Zimmer, and an overarching cinematic effect is exactly what he achieves on this ambitious project. He recorded the guitar parts with
Antoine Dufour (also part of the CandyRat Records stable) and developed the string, brass, and other aspects separately. For the guitar he uses unique tunings and a style of two-handed tapping that he came up with
for his song "Brazil" on his last album, along with overlapping lines and distortion. An example, with tapping start to finish, is the propulsive "In the Zone," almost techno in sound (heavy metal bands were an early
influence), which employs G G Bb D G B tuning. (He writes that each tapped note was recorded separately, programed one by one, to result in a total of 80 guitar tracks!) Like "The Flow" (D A C F Bb C tuning) the title
gestures to that creative space in which time seems to stand still and everything extraneous falls away. Each of the pieces is complete in itself, with lovely melodies, graceful arpeggios, and strong dynamics. The
violin accompaniment is particularly noteworthy, as are the vocals, which lend a spooky overlay on many pieces. Favorites include melodic "Valhalla," with ethereal vocalizing that sounds as if the stars themselves are
singing; "On Angels' Wings," which showcases Voth's gorgeous fingerpicking, harmonics, and tapping, and has a propulsive tension throughout; and "Omega," which opens with an organ-like sound and choral vocalizing
heightened by intricate and dramatic percussive effects. One of Voth's albums is titled Otherwordly, and perhaps that's the best word to describe his music. Experimental, original, and eye-opening, this is not your
typical guitar album, and Voth is not your typical guitarist and composer. For interested guitarists, tabs and videos to watch his techniques up close are available on the Candy Rat website. For guitarists and
nonguitarists alike, this album is an enthralling and immersive experience.
Pino Forastiere & Tommaso Alfonsi, "Conversation," 2024
I have a hard enough time keeping track of six strings, but on Pino Forastiere's new album, Conversation, a collaboration with Tommaso Alfonsi, he is playing a 19-string guitar. Alfonsi, no stranger to the 19-string
himself (see his 2022 album, Incerti Suoni), plays electric guitar. Both players go wild with the effects: there are relay-races of delay, thick clouds of reverb, stutters and reverses. The result is a collaboration
that falls way outside genre boundaries. There are threads of contemporary classical (I hear the minimalism of Glass, but also strains of Ravel, Debussy, and perhaps other Impressionist-era composers, especially in the
title track), jazz (I get a strong John Abercrombie vibe at times), and a kind of restless ambient exploration of soundscapes that covers mythological vistas from Hades to Heaven. What I love about this music is that the
wood and the wild, the acoustic and the electric, weave together seamlessly. One minute we're in a modern-fingerstyle haven of calm delight ("Corale") while the next ("Valzer per una nuvola," which I translate as "Waltz
for a Cloud") we're in a sky full of whales calling for home. The pianistic depths of the 19-string's bass contrast beautifully with Alfonsi's electric picking, especially in the counterpoint of "Conversation" and the
arpeggiations of "Rito." Speaking of whales, I've noticed a trend in contemporary instrumental music, a desire to sound not like something human-made but rather like something recorded deep in a forest, an ocean, a sky,
like animals known and not telling us mere humans the true story of what it means to be alive. I attribute this strain not only to the influence of so-called world music (check out the didgeridoo-like timbre of the
effected guitar in the second half of "Pre Rito") but to something deeper and more profound, as well: the loss of the natural world, the sense of impending doom as heat and weather become always more intense but, too,
to the encroachment and intertangling of the "cooked" human world with the "raw" of the wild. Where cougars, elk, moose, bobcats and coyotes were nearly extinct where I live in the western U.S. they now stalk pets and
graze on yard clippings. Forastiere and Alfonsi make welcome this wild unpredictability; they are masters of their instruments, for sure, but also servants to the sound. So there is not only a conversation between two
players here, but two players converging with something much larger, more wild, and often both much more frightening and enlightening than the shrunken-head poverty of a lot of contemporary music.
Tinsley Ellis, "Naked Truth," 2024
On his 21st album, Naked Truth, Tinsley Ellis inhabits the musical space between passion and reflection. The singer-songwriter and formidable guitarist has assembled nine originals and three covers as he explores the
sound and the fury of love, love lost, and love ache throughout classic folk blues forms. Ellis employs his beloved 1968 Martin D-35 for fingerpicking and his 1937 National Steel O Series for slide workouts. The third
instrument is, of course, Ellis's raspy voice, which he mellows and sweetens as the song dictates. He brings nine original tracks, interspersed with three covers. The vibe throughout is that of blues traditionalists
such as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Skip James and Son House. Ellis has his brass slide working hard on House's "Death Letter Blues," which features his voice dropped down to a deeper register. Ellis kickstarts his
collection with a searing, foot-stomping original, "Devil in The Room." Following is the contemplative "Windowpane," and his voice moving to a higher register, singing: "If you see my baby, send her back my way /
I really miss my gal, hope she comes back some day / I want good love to wash down on me like rain." Heartfelt and evocative, it's true blues all the way. Other titles include "Don't go Down No Further" (a Willie
Dixon cover), "I Gotta Love Somebody," "Tallahassee Blues," "Hoochie Mama," and "Horseshoes and Hand Grenades." On the latter, he sings, "You put my love up on a shelf / When you gave your heart to someone else /
But I was close, thought I had it made / But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." Among the three sans-vocals selections is a reflective cover of Leo Kottke's "The Sailor's Grave on the Prairie." The
other two guitar-only tracks, "Alcovy Breakdown" and "Silver Mountain," also feature his deft finger skills, truly phenomenal stuff. This is his first solo acoustic collection. Ellis is based in Atlanta, where he was
born in 1957, and was raised in southern Florida. He seems fully at ease inhabiting these tracks, and continues to tour heavily. He's a bit of an American treasure.
The Langan Band, "Plight o' Sheep," 2024
The acoustic Langan Band has an undeniable rootsy sound, but they're not traditionalists. The Scottish group is comprised of John Langan on lead vocals, guitar, percussion, and accordion, Alastair Caplin, on violin,
viola, and accordion, and Dave Tunstall on upright bass, mandolin, and small pipes, with all three contributing background vocals. Plight o' Sheep is their second album in over a decade, having been delayed by COVID and
band members' personal circumstances. There's a strong Celtic feel in much of the set, but the music evokes a Yardbirds rave-up as much as an Appalachian hoedown. To start the program, Caplin and Langan play a wistful
introduction to "One Whole Year," a message of longing for a lover. The mood continues as Langan sings the first verse over his understated guitar accompaniment, after which the whole band kicks in, adding overdubbed
percussion and harmony vocals to their basic live instrumentation. The barnburning "Bastard Hills of Totterdown" stands out in several respects, in addition to its title. The lyrics tell of cycling into town in search of
wine to share with a lover, then, after putting "something up my nose a couple of hours ago … it's surging up to pickle my melon… it's silly o'clock in the morning and the shops are all closed". It's an intense romp,
capped by an unexpected upward modulation at the end of each chorus. An unaccompanied violin opens the instrumental, "The Drunken Dwarf". In a minor key, the piece follows a traditional form for fiddle tunes and has a
Klezmer or East European sound. Caplin avoids flying all over the fingerboard, but instead emphasizes elements that drive the music, like bouncy double-stops. A fingerpicked nylon string guitar begins "Open Your Eyes",
a song that laments a love lost due to the singer's carelessness, with Caplin playing a mournful obbligato to Langan's vocal. An interlude with violin, bass, and wordless vocalizing raises the intensity to the boiling
point until the last chorus, when the band cools to a simmer. The music on this album is aurally compelling, accessible, and has the energy of a live performance, although the band apparently recorded these pieces before
playing them to an audience. The lyrics are literate yet relatable, and the band is tight and extroverted in its presentation. Plight o' Sheep is an excellent vehicle for the Langan Band to gain a wider international audience.
©
David Pedrick
Buy it at Amazon.com
Listen to "El abrazo"
©
Céline Keating
Buy it at CandyRat Records
Listen to "Flow"
Listen to Daniel Voth at our podcast 
©
Brian Clark
Pino Forastiere's Bandcamp page
Buy it at Bandcamp
Listen to "Conversation"
Listen to Forastiere/Alfonsi at our podcast
©
Fred Kraus
Buy it at Amazon.com
Listen to "Death Letter Blues"
©
Patrick Ragains
Buy it at Amazon.com
Listen to "One Whole Year"
