▄▄ [ INFORMATION ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ ARTIST: Eric Chenaux █
█ TITLE: Guitar & Voice █
█ LABEL: Constellation █
█ GENRE: Avantgarde █
█ BITRATE: 227kbps avg █
█ PLAYTIME: 0h 45min total █
█ RELEASE DATE: 2012-00-00 █
█ RIP DATE: 2012-03-04 █
█ URL: █
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▄▄ [ TRACKLIST ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ 01. Amazing Backgrounds 5:14 █
█ 02. Simple,Frontal 3:56 █
█ 03. Dull Lights (White Or Grey) 7:07 █
█ 04. Sliabh Aughty 8:24 █
█ 05. Le Nouveau Favori 2:01 █
█ 06. Put In Music 7:25 █
█ 07. Genitalia Domestique 2:02 █
█ 08. However Wildly We Dream 5:34 █
█ 09. Glitzing For Stephen Parkinson 3:57 █
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▄▄ [ NOTES ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ Description █
█ █
█ Eric Chenaux is one of Canada's most respected and long-standing █
█ experimental guitar players and songwriters, starting with legendary █
█ Toronto punk band Phleg Camp in the early 90s and tirelessly expanding █
█ his musical vocabulary and reach in countless improv, avant-folk, █
█ damaged jazz and contemporary music ensembles throughout the 2000s. █
█ Since 2006, Constellation has been home to Chenaux's more overtly █
█ song-based work, his clear voice and erudite lyricism guided by an █
█ utterly unique guitar technique and a deep immersion in pop and folk █
█ traditions from medieval to post-modern. █
█ █
█ With this fourth album for the label, simply and aptly titled Guitar & █
█ Voice, Chenaux has made what in a literal sense can be called his first █
█ solo album, in that the recording features only his playing and singing; █
█ no guest or supporting musicians, minimal overdubs, and a rigorous █
█ structure that alternates back and forth between longform lyrical █
█ vocal-based songs and shorter, cacophonously harmonious bowed-guitar █
█ instrumentals. █
█ █
█ Chenaux sees the entirety of Guitar & Voice as balladry. The album's █
█ four tunes with singing are clearly ballads, but filtered through █
█ Chenaux's uniquely distorted, refracted, genre-defying lens. Jazz, █
█ consort-music, free/improv, Scottish folk, psych/noise, medieval, █
█ baroque and pop influences do not so much compete as synthesise in █
█ various ways across these four songs. Heartbreaking lyrics delivered in █
█ Chenaux's strong but gentle lilt are set against an ever-shifting array █
█ of sounds and strategies elicited from acoustic nylon-string guitar █
█ (with the help of a small but expertly-deployed chain of wah-, freeze- █
█ and fuzz-pedals). Traditional song structure and lyrical arcs manage █
█ somehow to anchor themselves to constantly surprising, unpredictable and █
█ virtuosic contrapuntal guitar work, always playing at/with the threshold █
█ of sonic experimentation and improvisation. Chenaux's ballads sound like █
█ no other. █
█ █
█ With the exception of "Sliabh Aughty" û a beautifully fried 8-minute █
█ Hendrixian workout (were Jimi searing an Irish piping tune rather than █
█ the American national anthem) û all the album's instrumentals are █
█ miniatures of a sort. Each is a a bowed guitar piece, recorded █
█ acoustically, re-amplified through Leslie speakers and re-recorded as █
█ installation pieces in the studio. Each of these short pieces shifts and █
█ slides along a stream of harmonic consonances and dissonances where █
█ melodic motifs are continually subject to slippage, and each is intended █
█ to frame and expand the sentiments (and sentimentalism) of balladry that █
█ inform the album as a whole. As Chenaux insists, "They are not █
█ interludes. They are ballads with the same interests as the 'songs'. █
█ They lilt similarly. They flirt from the margins into the romantic █
█ similarly. The imagined strangeness of the romantic, but through a █
█ psychedelic lens." █
█ █
█ Guitar & Voice was beautifully recorded by Radwan Moumneh at Six Saint █
█ V, a small MontrΘal studio apartment provided by Constellation to █
█ visiting musicians. The sessions were then mixed at Hotel2Tango. "Put In █
█ Music" was treated and mixed by Chenaux's friend and labelmate Sandro █
█ Perri in Toronto. █
█ █
█ Thanks for listening. █
█ █
█ Release date: 6 March 2012 █
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