#4572, Adapted, Prepared, and Modified Guitars
Listen to work for adapted, modified or prepared guitars by Sardinian Paolo Angeli, Virginia-based Yasmin Williams, harp guitar played by Mary Halvorson, and Cairo-based Maurice Louca.
There’s music by Radiohead, adapted for Sardinian prepared guitar by the guitarist, composer, ethnomusicologist, and instrument builder Paolo Angeli. His prepared guitar is capable of all kinds of orchestral and electronic sounds; it is bowed cello-like, has drone strings, is plucked, strummed, or struck like hammers on a piano - plus pedal effects. Here is a remote session of original music that Paolo Angeli recorded for the Soundcheck Podcast:
Hear work by guitarist and instrument-builder Kaki King, who has modified a guitar by adding a bridge and playing it on her lap, so that it almost resembles a toy koto or a zither in its sound capabilities. Listen also to music by Virginia-based fingerstyle guitarist Yasmin Williams, who plays with the guitar in her lap, and sometimes together with kalimba. She also plays percussion with her tap shoe-clad feet on a board, adding accompaniment.
Then, there’s music made with mallet-struck prepared guitars in the UK-based band Whistling Arrow, also featuring violins and recorders from Laura Cannell. Hear music by Dominic Frasca, who plays a custom-Frasca-made 10-stringed guitar, plus various pedals and his laptop. Each string has a voice and is manipulated through the pedals/laptop, along with his own beats, made by tapping.
Then, listen to guitarist Mary Halvorson and woodwind player Robbie Lee from a 2018 in-studio appearance on Soundcheck. Halvorson plays a harp guitar - an 18-string Knutsen harp guitar (circa 1899) - while Lee performs on unusual wind instruments. Also, there’s new music involving prepared guitar by Cairo-based musician Maurice Louca and the the Lebanese improvisational group called the “A” Trio. Their custom instruments – a prepared guitar and an Indonesian Serang are capable of playing the quarter tones of Arabic maqams. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4572, Adapted, Prepared, and Modified Guitars (First Aired 12/16/2021)
ARTIST: Paolo Angeli
WORK: Airbag [1:10]
RECORDING: 22.22 Free Radiohead
SOURCE: AnMa RER megacorp
INFO: paoloangeli.com | Available at Amazon.com, AppleMusic
ARTIST: Kaki King
WORK: Teek [4:32]
RECORDING: Modern Yesterdays
SOURCE: Cantaloupe Music
INFO: kakiking.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Yasmin Williams
WORK: Dragonfly [4:44]
RECORDING: Urban Driftwood
SOURCE: Spinster Sounds
INFO: yasminwilliams.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Whistling Arrow
WORK: Forking Path [6:30]
RECORDING: Whistling Arrow
SOURCE: God Unknown Records
INFO: godunknownrecords.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Dominic Frasca
WORK: Mellits: Lefty's Elegy [2:26]
RECORDING: Deviations
SOURCE: Cantaloupe CA21032, out of print
INFO: Try Discogs.com or Amazon.com
ARTIST: Paolo Angeli
WORK: Airbag [7:20]
RECORDING: 22.22 Free Radiohead
SOURCE: AnMa RER megacorp
INFO: paoloangeli.com | Available at Amazon.com, AppleMusic
ARTIST: Dominic Frasca
WORK: Mellits: Metaclopramide [1:31]
RECORDING: Deviations
SOURCE: Cantaloupe CA21032, out of print
INFO: Try Discogs.com or Amazon.com
ARTIST: Mary Halvorson and Robbie Lee
WORK: Seven of Strong [3:44]
RECORDING: Live on the Soundcheck Podcast, 2018
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: The work appears on the New Amsterdam Records release, Seed Triangular | robbieleesound.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Shane Parish
WORK: Drop Z : Bell5@19/PS@Br(6-1)/PC1/CS@19(3-1) [1:31]
RECORDING: Autodidact
SOURCE/INFO: shaneparish.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Maurice Louca and “A” Trio
WORK: Saet El-Hazz (The Luck Hour) [3:29]
RECORDING: Saet El-Hazz
SOURCE: Northern Spy Records / Sub Rosa Label
INFO: https://mauricelouca.northern-spy.com/biglink
