#4358, Guitars and Other Machines
Listen to music for guitar and other machines by Alex de Grassi and the sympitar, 12-string adapted guitar by the Garlands, oud from Gordon Grdina, and a bit of guzheng and banjo by Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn.
Listen to guitarist Alex de Grassi and his adaptation of the folk song “Shenandoah” played on custom-made sympitar, which combines guitar and Indian sitar. (Wikipedia also tells us that luthier Fred Carlson also spends his time in the workshop building a variation on the sympitar called the "harp sympitar", the first of which, completed in January 2002, was the Oracle Harp Sympitar commissioned by guitarist Jeffrey Titus and dedicated to the memory of multi-instrumentalist Michael Hedges.)
Hear music by The Garlands, who are radio host and songwriter David Garland and his son, Kenji. The music is from an album-length work, Mortality, written for the late Anne Garland, and built around a 12-string adapted guitar, modified by Kenji in combination with modular synthesizer. Then, there's music from the English post-punk band The Durutti Column, which is mostly Vini Reilly (one of the forces behind Factory Records) using “the Guitar and Other Machines,” specifically a Yamaha Sequencer and a DMX Drum Machine to make perky synth loops and punchy drum sounds, in addition to guitar. Plus, listen to two South African guitar wizards, Guy Buttery and Derek Gripper, from a recent limited edition live recording made in Cape Town.
Also, hear 6- and 12-string guitar by Wall Matthews, inspired by Indian classical music and music by the heart is awake (aka Billy White of old school prog metal band Watchtower) who is a guitarist and throat singer. He’s developed a style of acoustic guitar mixed with drones and bells. Plus, listen to music for Arabic oud from Gordon Grdina, and then some Chinese guzheng and Appalchian banjo by Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn.
Program #4358, Guitars and Other Machines (First aired 4/24/2020)
ARTIST: Alex de Grassi
WORK: Shenandoah [1:00]
RECORDING: The Bridge
SOURCE: sixdegreesrecords.com
INFO: Due out Spring 2020
ARTIST: The Heart Is Awake (Billy White)
WORK: Lydianna [6:36]
RECORDING: Luminessence
SOURCE: https://theheartisawake.bandcamp.com/album/luminessence
ARTIST: Alex de Grassi
WORK: Shenandoah [3:41]
RECORDING: The Bridge
SOURCE: sixdegreesrecords.com
INFO: Due out Spring 2020
ARTIST: The Garlands (David and Kenji Garland)
WORK: Mortality 2 [5:24]
RECORDING: Vulneraries Vol. 3 Mortality
SOURCE/INFO: davidgarland.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: The Durutti Column
WORK: Miss Haymes [3:25]
RECORDING: The Guitar and Other Machines
SOURCE: Factory Once / London Records
INFO: Available as an import at Amazon.com
ARTIST: Wall Matthews
WORK: The Doves Of Venus, Prelude [2:40]
RECORDING: Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967-1981
SOURCE: Tompkins Square
INFO: tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Wall Matthews
WORK: E Minor Suite, Waltz [4:01]
RECORDING: Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967-1981
SOURCE: Tompkins Square
INFO: tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Guy Buttery and Derek Gripper
WORK: Kya Baat [10:52]
RECORDING: Live in Cape Town
SOURCE: newcape.bandcamp.com
INFO: Limited time download
ARTIST: Gordon Grdina's The Marrow
WORK: Gabriel James [5:47]
RECORDING: Safar-e-Daroon
SOURCE/INFO: gordongrdina.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn
WORK: Weaving Medley / Busy Weaving [2:32]
RECORDING: Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn
SOURCE: Smithsonian Folkways
INFO: folkways.si.edu/wu-fei-and-abigail-washburn
