#5005, Guitar and Guitar-Like Instruments
Hear some guitar and guitar-like instruments, treated differently from London-based Turkish composer and double-necked bağlama player Ozan Baysal, Canadian-Palestinian guitarist Bilal Nasser, the four-string guitar of Bill Orcutt, and American guitarist and composer William Tyler.
There’s music by London-based Turkish composer and double-necked bağlama player Ozan Baysal, from his album Tel ve Ten, which translates to “String and Skin.” On it, Baysal showcases şelpe—an ancient Anatolian bağlama playing style that has evolved over centuries to include core techniques of parmak vurma (finger tapping), tel çekme (plucking), and pençe (strumming). Hear the piece, “Cakal Cokerten Zeybegi” or Jackal-kneeling Zeybek – a Zeybek is an Anatolian folk dance.
Listen also to music by LA-based Nashville-rooted guitarist and composer William Tyler, whose instrumental music takes the guitar as its starting point and folds in post-modern experimentation, field recordings and static drifts. A sense of dislocation and uncertainty colors a lot of the music on his latest album, Time Indefinite, which embraces imperfections like the “hiss and wobble”, (Bandcamp liner notes)
Hear “Carpathian Transit” by Polish guitarist, composer, and researcher of musical folklore Raphael Roginski from his record Talán, a very old (probably Scythian) word that can be translated as “maybe”. Roginski uses different tuning systems and a largely self-taught practice to make his unconventional, and unorthodox sounds; this record specifically was a result of Rogiński’s fascination with the Black Sea – where all of the tracks are somehow connected to it and some were composed in Odessa.
Then, there’s music by Bilal Nasser, a Palestinian-Canadian guitarist, based in Windsor, Ontario who blends classical technique with post-rock and shoegaze, for what he calls “post-classical guitar” (there is an accompanying manifesto.) Listen to his work, “Yawn Into It”, a jaw-dropping piece both impressive in its technical prowess, and for the musicality of the riffs; it’s from his record, How Can We Say Nothing. Plus, hear music for long-necked tanbur by Strasbourg-based Turkish composer and improviser Merve Salgar, whose practice involves expanding the boundaries of traditional tanbur playing techniques. That, and more. - Caryn Havlik
Program #5005, Guitar and Guitar-Like Instruments (First aired 5/9/2025)
ARTIST: Ozan Baysal
WORK: Cakal Cokerten Zeybegi (Jackal-kneeling Zeybek) [1:00]
RECORDING: Tel ve Ten
SOURCE: ARC
INFO: https://tr.ee/Rdy8QStGG2
ARTIST: William Tyler
WORK: Concern [5:29]
RECORDING: Time Indefinite
SOURCE: Psychic Hotline
INFO: https://williamtyler.bandcamp.com/album/time-indefinite
ARTIST: Raphael Rogiński
WORK: Carpathian Transit [4:22]
RECORDING: Talàn
SOURCE: Instant Classic
INFO: https://raphaelroginski.bandcamp.com/album/tal-n
ARTIST: Ozan Baysal
WORK: Cakal Cokerten Zeybegi (Jackal-kneeling Zeybek) [3:37]
RECORDING: Tel ve Ten
SOURCE: ARC
INFO: https://tr.ee/Rdy8QStGG2
ARTIST: Marisa Anderson, William Tyler, with Gisela Rodriguez Fernandez and patricia vázquez gómez
WORK: At the Edge of the World [6:17]
RECORDING: Lost Futures
SOURCE: Thrill Jockey
INFO: https://marisaanderson.bandcamp.com/album/lost-futures
ARTIST: Larum, feat. Bill Orcutt
WORK: O Virga Mediatrix (Hildegard von Bingen) [5:07]
RECORDING: The Music of Hildegard von Bingen Part 2
SOURCE: Puremagnetik
INFO: https://larum.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-of-hildegard-von-bingen-part-two
ARTIST: Bilal Nasser
WORK: Yawn Into It [6:25]
RECORDING: How Can We Say Nothing
SOURCE: Bilal Nasser
INFO: https://bilalnasser.bandcamp.com/album/how-can-we-say-nothing
ARTIST: Bilal Nasser
WORK: Yawn Into It [6:25]
RECORDING: How Can We Say Nothing
SOURCE: Bilal Nasser
INFO: https://bilalnasser.bandcamp.com/album/how-can-we-say-nothing
ARTIST: Merve Salgar
WORK: fly on the wall [3:35]
RECORDING: String Layers II
SOURCE: 7K! Records
INFO: https://www.mervesalgar.com/
ARTIST: Stein Urheim
WORK: Speiler seg stille (silently reflecting) [6:12]
RECORDING: Speilstillevariasjoner
SOURCE: HUBRO Music
INFO: https://hubromusic.bandcamp.com/album/speilstillevariasjoner
ARTIST: Kaki King
WORK: Teek [1:31]
RECORDING: Modern Yesterdays
SOURCE: Cantaloupe Music
INFO: https://kakiking.bandcamp.com/album/modern-yesterdays
