Guitar Moderne Festival XXVIII and Test

The season of festivals has begun. For those who are short of cash and/or hate crowds comes the latest virtual Guitar Moderne  Fesival. From the land of Raoul Bjorkenheim and Jimi Sumen comes a recent discovery for me, Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima, along with stalwarts Ava Menzoza, David Torn, and Tim Brady.

Also, trying to discover if you are getting email notices of posts, so please reply or comment. Thanks.

Kalima-Steidle-Spallati live on Kaisersteg 2020

Klima Kalima are Living in a BOX #38 | live at Club Gretchen

Ava Mendoza / James Brandon Lewis / Devin Hoff | AFA On_Line Salon

David Torn & Sun of Goldfinger @ the Walnut Room 

Tim Brady – Instruments of Happiness – 100 guitares 2023 – Festival Int’l. de Jazz de Montréal

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The Tim Brady Interview

Tim Brady is at the top of a small cadre of guitarists composing what might be called modern classical or new music for electric guitar. His pieces include ones for solo electric and loopers, 100 and 200 electric guitars, electric guitar and orchestra, electric guitar quartet, electric guitar and voices…you get the idea. Check out out our previous chat here and here. And get the new three album set, Actions Speak Louder, here.

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More is More: Tim Brady’s Instruments of Happiness 100 Guitars 2021

It is said that a great artist is not the best of their kind but the only one of their kind. By that metric Tim Brady is truly great. He is currently the only one I know of composing music for guitar ensembles measuring in the hundreds. Here is his latest, recorded remotely, as one does these days. Read more about Tim here and here.

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Tim Brady’s Instruments of Happiness Remote Performance

Tim Brady is one of the premier composers of might be called the new classical canon for electric guitar. He largely does ensemble work ranging from quartets to groups of 200. Last year I went to his home of Montreal to write about him for Guitar Player and garnered enough additional material for a two part Guitar Moderne interview here and here.

As is typical during this lockdown, Brady and his group, Instruments of Happiness, are offering a remote performance of one of his pieces. He also answered some questions about the process.

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Spotlight: Dither’s Taylor Levine—Part I

Last year, I interviewed James Moore from the Dither Guitar Quartet around the time he released his record performing the entirety of John Zorn’s The Book of Heads. This set me on a path examining the place of the electric guitar in contemporary “classical” music. I recently posted a two-part interview with Tim Brady, where we discussed this fascinating (at least to me) subject. With this month’s release of Dither’s fantastic record, Potential Differences [New Focus Recordings], I deemed it time to talk to one of the Quartet’s founders, Taylor Levine, about how they manage to make the electric guitar sound like a natural vehicle for modern composed music. Again, the conversation ranged wide and so there will be a Part II. Please subscribe to find out when the post goes up.

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