Extreme Guitar commissions by MARCO CAPPELLI, guitar
Mode 157
Marco Cappelli's Extreme Guitar Project was aimed to provide repertoire for his modified 6-string acoustic instrument, with 8 additional sympathetic strings that can be variably tuned.
He achieved a gratifyingly wide ranging response from improvising/composing guitarist friends who have provided him with a collection of musics - of a type that might have appeared on the lost, lamented, Unknown Public, whose treasured books with CDs of fringe/experimental discs have ceased production, but remain available for downloading on line..
Cappello's project, to provide new music for his own ingenious Extreme Guitar (illustrated), which was designed to incorporate a range of microtonal tunings, the possibilities augmented with the special sympathetic strings. The response has been generous and represents, chiefly, the new York avant-garde scene known as Downtown Music.
One of the pieces included on the disc, Annie Gosfield's Marked by a Hat, tackles the commission head on with a work to be played on those sympathetic strings alone, microtonally tuned to E, D & C and the quarter tones that surround them.
Our guitarist/composer specialist promises a fuller review of the whole ground-breaking disc in due course.
Meanwhile, these CDs, if you splash out, will encourage you to check out Mode Records' monthly releases,
always produced with meticulous loving care and high production standards under the direct guidance of Brian Brandt.
For a recent example of that label's explorations of the byways, do see their unique Feldman DVD.
Peter Grahame Woolf
See also Lou HARRISON's Por Gitaro: Suites for Tuned Guitars
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