Dream Musique Contemporaine Américaine Pour Guitare électrique Sorrentino

“Dream” is a musical journey through the sound of the electric guitar in American concert music, based on sonic research and on the simplicity and beauty of the electric guitar timbre and colors. Sorrentino’s transcription of Dream by John Cage opens the program. This version demonstrates the pure beauty of the electric guitar’s clean sound with only the addition of light reverb. Alpha Aloha by Jack Vees is an experimental composition, where the electric guitar sound is electronically processed. The sounds result from playing guitar through various digital filters which slowly open and close at different rates, the resonance is set in such a way as to let some notes through with more strength than others. It creates an ocean of sound. David Lang’s Warmth, for two electric guitars, explores the warm sound of the tube amp. No effects, only the overdrive and a gradually increasing amp saturation. The two guitars play almost the same melody at almost the same time, as if you have two lines rubbing up against each other. The music of the piece is a result of the friction between the lines. The graphic score Mare Undarum by Elliott Sharp is an invitation to a free improvisation. Quoting Sharp: “Sorrentino uses a variety of techniques on his electric guitar to vividly transform the score into a rarefied and hyperreal landscape. His direct and unadorned Stratocaster tone is rich with harmonics and deep with resonance.” Rose of Beans by Alvin Curran, is an extrapolated fragment for electric guitar solo from a larger ensemble piece. An hypnotic succession of metric and rhythmic changes with a small number of notes and repetitive but always changing patterns, the sound of the guitar is clean with only the addition of a vintage Leslie pedal effect. This is the first CD release the lost electric guitar composition by Morton Feldman, The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar. Originally composed for Christian Wolff, it was reconstructed by guitarist Seth Josel. Feldman began by writing some long-sounding sequences in his most typical style, and asking Wolff for their feasibility on the guitar. The intention was to make the electric guitar sound completely different, to let the guitar play in a sweet and soft way. Both of Christian Wolff’s works for electric guitar are included here. Going West, is a work of complex counterpoint. In Another Possibility, Wolff tried to recall Feldman’s (at the time still lost) composition. Wolff invites the interpreter to play the written notes, but freely choosing the type of sound to get on the instrument (techniques, effects, timbre). Larry Polansky is one of the a greatest experimental guitarist-composers. An Unhappy Set of Coincidences is for any low and high instruments (here electric guitar and electric bass version). Polansky says “Rhythmically, it should be “swing”, like a jazz tune.” Urutora-man by Van Stiefel (b.1965), a composer and guitarist, is an homage to Toru Takemitsu and is based on the character of the super-hero Ultraman. Its effective fresco of resonances and harmonies enhance the intimate and evocative side of the electric guitar sound.