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2LP
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PAL 095LP
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"This record shouldn't, strictly speaking, be possible at all. It's not just that Autechre's music is electronic and Shane Parish's is acoustic. It's not just that Autechre come from electro and techno, while Shane's solo guitar music is rooted in jazz, folk, and the blues. Those borders, between mediums and genres, are as porous as you want them to be. But Autechre are synonymous with difficulty, opacity, inscrutability -- known for unparseable rhythms, cryptic riffs, and shapeshifting timbres. Even on their early records, before they'd begun building out the mind-bending software systems that have defined the past quarter-century of their music, the duo of Sean Booth and Rob Brown were working at the very limits of their machines: eking melodies out of drum sounds, programming intricate polyrhythms of superhuman complexity, and writing sequences that defy attempts to decipher them. The origins of Autechre Guitar run deep. Translating shades of pewter and graphite into something resembling a 12-tone scale. And, most importantly, finding ways to distill Autechre's seemingly limitless details in ways that could be played by just 10 fingers without losing the soul of the song. The material on Autechre Guitar is drawn entirely from the 1990s. The reason is simple: That's the melodic golden age of Autechre, when Booth and Brown were writing hooks that would go down as some of the most enduring, and emotionally satisfying, in the past three decades of electronic music. Shane has done a remarkable job of capturing those melodies and translating them for the steel strings of his Taylor 214E-G. Listening to Shane, you intuit the way he's had to reach deep inside each song, working by feel alone, to grasp its contours and come back with something that communicates its ideas, even if it sounds all but unrecognizably different. Ultimately, Autechre Guitar works on multiple levels. It's a celebration of Autechre's music, shining a spotlight on the durability and flexibility of their songwriting. At the same time, it's an invitation to listen deep inside the music, to take part as active listeners in the process of translation and interpretation. And while it hardly needs to be said, it's an invitation to simply get lost in Shane's astonishingly fleet playing, which takes these songs of unfathomable difficulty and makes them seem practically effortless."
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LP
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EFT 004LP
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"Melodies are alive, remolded and reshaped in each performance. Guitarist Shane Parish embraces this continual evolution by transcribing songs from across musical genres, instruments, and eras for solo guitar. Albums like 2024's Repertoire, which features 14 songs across jazz, folk, and electronic music and played on acoustic guitar, showcase his skill in transcription, as does his work transforming Bill Orcutt's Four Guitars from a multi-tracked solo project into a quartet played live by four musicians. His practice is that of musical curiosity and technical virtuosity, highlighting all the ways a good song can be unraveled and sewn back together into something new. On Solo At Cafe Oto, Parish presents six poignant ballads reimagined for solo electric guitar as played at London's legendary venue in fall 2023. A European tour with the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet brought him to the venue; they did a one-off show at Cafe Oto in which each member of the group played a solo set. It ended up being a special night, one of those shows in which there's magic in the room forged by a shared love of music. Many of the songs Parish chose to perform that evening hold a sense of mysteriousness, something immersive and intriguing to get lost in. He picked them -- some of which had stayed with him for many years -- because of their attention to atmosphere. It's a characteristically eclectic vision: Three songs are by John Jacob Niles, a Kentucky balladeer whom Parish had developed a deep knowledge of over recent years, two are by English songwriters, Anne Briggs and Shirley Collins, and one is by Angelo Badalamenti, known for his unique ability to capture the dreamy and surreal darkness of David Lynch's storied worlds. Parish's transcriptions highlight how each of these songs create a mood in their timeless melodies, and invite us to share in them."
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