a r t i s t : Alexander Turnquist
t i t l e : Faint At The Loudest Hour
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : VHF
g e n r e : Folk
r l s. d a t e : okt/2007
t r a c k s : 06
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 80,6 MB
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Well, here comes another one of those Takoma-inspired solo
acoustic guitar albums. It's getting increasingly difficult to
talk about the genre with any sort of meaning nowadays given
that the spectrum of sounds within this particular school tend
to be so heavily constricted. Of course, there are leading
lights who mark themselves out as singular talents: Sir
Richard Bishop, Jack Rose and James Blackshaw being the big,
obvious trinity of contemporary acoustic virtuosos. While each
of those players has been successful in stamping out their
respective voices on the instrument, there remains a large
number of lesser known players operating in the same field who
get wrongfully lost in the crowd. It's understandable as to
why that might be - how many post-Fahey open-tuned
fingerpickers does your record collection need? Well,
Alexander Turnquist certainly has his merits. Although his
technique slightly lacks the evenness and effortless fluency
you'd hear from Rose or Blackshaw, he more than compensates
with his impassioned, often aggressive assault on the strings.
'Mime Fight' proves to be especially revelatory, the guitarist
taking time out from more run of the mill picking duties and
instead opting for some warped percussive workouts. Beyond the
actual playing, it's worth listening out for some of
Turnquist's quirks in presenting his material. Halfway through
the chiming raga of 'Amongst A Swarm Of Hummingbirds' there's
a bit of a Fennesz moment, Turnquist feeding his instrument
through a tangle of granular plugins before emerging at the
end with a reinvigorated, gallop to his string plucks. Scott
Solter (Mountain Goats, Liam Singer) does a wonderful job of
recording the album too, capturing every detail of Turnquist's
forceful performance. I guess there's room for one more in
that 'solo guitar' section of your record collection afterall.
http://www.myspace.com/alexanderturnquist
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01-Amongst A Swarm Of Hummingbirds [13:30]
02-In the Vein Of Bedlam [11:05]
03-Water Spots Upon My Mind [13:48]
04-White Out [05:02]
05-Mime Fight [10:43]
06-As The Sun Sets, We Think Of Days To Come... [03:13]
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57:21 min