a r t i s t : VA
t i t l e : The Garden Of Forking Paths (Curated By James Blackshaw)
d a t e : 2008
l a b e l : Important Records
g e n r e : Folk
r l s. d a t e : Feb/2008
t r a c k s : 05
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 56,6 MB
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-boomkat.com
Compiled and curated for Important Records by James Blackshaw,
The Garden Of Forking Paths draws together some of the
guitarist's favourite string instrument soloists, including
the koto virtuoso and composer Mori Chieko, Espers cellist
Helena Espvall and Dutch lute revivalist Josef Van Wissem.
It's not hard to see how all this flows into Blackshaw's own
music, his advanced 12-string pieces have always been
curiously detached from the main thread of solo acoustic
guitar music. While the Takoma school has clearly left its
mark on him as a musician, there's always been something about
Blackshaw's playing that transcends the usual bluegrass and
raga templates. This is further proven on this album by 'The
Broken Hourglass', the compiler's own contribution. Typically
of Blackshaw, it's a piece of music that sounds far bigger
than a mere single guitar could ever reasonably hope to, with
florid, unfeasibly intricate fingerpicking hammering out
rhythmic and melodic parts simultaneously, bathed in a
churchly echo. Next comes Espvall's 'Home Of Shadows And
Whirlwinds', a piece of music that has little common ground
with anything you'd hear from the cellist's Espers day job,
instead exploring overtones and droning disharmony, sounding
not unlike a lower register version of Nils Okland's hardanger
fiddle. In fact the use of the drone string that runs through
much of the piece might be cited as a parallel to the sort of
sound you'd hear from a guitar or sitar raga. Next comes Josef
Van Wissem's lute solo 'The Mirror Of Eternal Light', which
presents the instrument in an entirely modernised context -
not in a Sting sort of way, but rather by employing the
instrument within the confines of a very contemporary sounding
piece of music, played with a level of dexterity and
accomplishment comparable to that of Blackshaw himself on his
12-string. The album is bookended by pieces from Mori Chieko,
the first, 'Spiral Wave' sounding like several instruments all
coming together in some strange Eastern variant of the blues,
while 'Tokyo Light' sounds altogether brighter, illuminated by
sweetly harmonised, meandering koto melodies. This isn't the
sort of compilation that comes along every day, while you
would never ordinarily hear such different musical disciplines
from such disparate musical cultures coming together in one
place, it somehow does all link up, flowing together
exquisitely as an album. Major props to James Blackshaw for
having the vison to fit it all together, and to Important
Records for giving it a home. Highly Recommended.
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01-Chieko Mori - Spiral Wave [05:48]
02-James Blackshaw - The Broken Hourglass [10:31]
03-Helena Espvall - Home Of Shadows And Whirlwinds [10:16]
04-Josef van Wissem - The Mirror Of Eternal Light [14:05]
05-Chieko Mori - Tokyo Light [06:04]
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46:44 min