|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
RER PA8
|
"An amazing record. It's beautifully recorded and almost impossible to believe that such a layered and polyphonic music, with chords, percussion, lead lines, bass lines, harmonies, string sections and sometimes voice could all be produced by one person in real time, without overdubs or loops. But it is. The instrument, a specially designed and augmented Sardinian guitar (almost the size of a cello) is equipped with motors, pedals, individual string mic'ing, and extra appendages; and of course there are the usual pedal-driven effects, intelligently and sparingly used. It's a record - and a music - that defies all description, except to say that it's tuneful, inventive, surprising, harmonically rich, generically diverse and sonically jaw-dropping. A masterpiece. A few words about the guitar; Over time Paulo has significantly rebuilt a large traditional Sardinian guitar, adding sympathetic strings, foot operated hammers that strike the strings from below and built-in electric mini fans (he built a similar instrument in 2003 for Pat Metheny). It is played rather like a cello, vertically, spiked to the floor and often with a bow."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
RER PA6
|
"Welcome to Paulo's sixth release for ReR, an extraordinary collection of pieces that explore the full range of his highly modified, extended and prepared Sardinian guitar. And although it's just him and electricity, it seldom sounds like fewer than three people playing. There are twelve fine compositions, each as crafted as a short novel, and beautifully recorded. Paulo's is a music that pretty much defies genre or category; accessible, experimental, tuneful, tactile and ambient - with a folk root, a rock inflection, and a contemporary outlook."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD/DVD DUALDISC
|
|
RER PA4
|
Paolo Angeli's live soundtrack to the film (viewable on the DVD) by Nanni Angeli. "This disc will play in stereo on a CD player and with film and 5.1 surround sound (or stereo) on a DVD player or computer. The music, as always, is prodigious, sounding like a small band, but played by one person in real time (as the film attests). In this format, you can also see the instrument -- close to a highly rebuilt and extended giant Sardinian guitar -- with many sympathetic and extra strings, motor-driven hurdy gurdy wheels, whirling strings, springs and other appendages, played like a cello, vertically, with bow, fingers, plectra and machines. However Heath Robinson it may appear, it is clearly under Paulo's hands, a highly serious and extraordinarily flexible beast that requires and has given rise to new playing techniques. The programme of compositions here navigates through highly-organized additive rhythms, freer Frith-like pointillism and some seemingly impossible mini-orchestrations. The film, professionally made, follows the performance, occasionally interpolating abstract passages and processed images. A remarkable player with a unique instrument, playing a music entirely his own."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
RER PA3
|
"Another extraordinary release by Sardinian virtuoso, Paolo Angeli, this time featuring compositions by Fred Frith and Björk -- all played solo in real time (though when you hear it, it's hard to believe it) on his highly customized and extended, electrified, giant Sardinian folk guitar. A tour de force of technique and at the same time highly musical; and there is so much going on here at any given time that it is difficult to relate what your ears tell you to just one Frankenstein instrument. Dense enough that it rewards listening to a few songs at a time, though you could probably also dance to it. This is Paulo's 3rd release for ReR; the first introduced his remarkable instrument and more remarkable technique, the second was of closely scored, very large ensemble works; here he returns to the guitar but under the discipline of the real-time realization of written and arranged compositions."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
RER PA2
|
"Known best as an experimental guitarist, with his 'Giant' Sardinian guitar -- which has a large mechanical claw stuck to the side of its body (to pluck counter melodies), piano-like hammers operated by pedals (to strike the strings), extra strings crossing the main strings at right angles with yet another set of sitar strings mounted on the body, a rope, a viola bridge -- which holds yet more strings -- and thirteen pickups and microphones which can separately amplify all the elements, sending them to different parts of the stereo picture, Paulo Angeli here steps neatly sideways into a different musical universe, bringing only an unmodified guitar and some pedals with him. Involving a small orchestra of musicians -- about thirty of them: a name-check of the disproportionately creative Bologna music community -- this composition adds up to an epic programme of highly evolved, minutely composed pieces covering half a planet of styles and audible references. At one pole there are involved pieces that bring to mind Uncle Meat-period Zappa (or maybe Waka Jawaka?), and contemporary experimental music -- and at the other, the straightforward influence of traditional Sardinian folk music. In between there blooms a broad bouquet of combinations, each telling its own part of the story. Throughout, Paulo's compositional voice remains the single thread on which all these episodes are strung."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
RER PA1
|
"Bucato is an album of solo guitar music performed on the 'Giant' Sardinian guitar, which is sized between a conventional guitar and a double bass, and is tuned lower than a standard guitar. Paolo Angeli has taken this folk instrument and has completely re-tooled it: There is a large mechanical claw stuck onto the side of the body of the instrument, which he uses to pluck counter melodies, piano-like hammers, operated by foot pedals strike the strings and lastly, many extra strings as well as 13 pickups and microphones have been added to further extend the variety of what his instrument can do. Bucato is a recording of Angeli and his extraordinary music in concert, recorded without overdubs." An extremely interesting and beautiful album of solo guitar. For fans of: Derek Bailey, Steffen Basho-Junghans, John Fahey, Fred Frith, Henry Kaiser, Hans Reichel and Elliott Sharp.
|
|
|
|