Various Artists

• DOUBLE LP EDITION

European Primitive Guitar is a compilation of instrumental guitar compositions, mapping out European analogs of the American Primitive Guitar movement, spearheaded by John Fahey in the 1950s.
Spans works directly influenced by and responding to Fahey’s approach to composition, alongside works by artists that arrived at similar conclusions independently. The music is, at once, both starkly traditional and contemporary.

This is no more evident than with the opening song on the compilation, Spanish guitarist Albert Giménez’s 1982 composition Conte Xinès. The song draws on numerous idioms of music, flamenco, jazz, ambient music, and guitar solo, within its shimmering arpeggios, culminating as a decidedly Spanish music that has collected the ephemera of the guitar’s travels before returning home. The compilation also explores wider ideas around experimentalism happening in Europe during the time of this anthology. German composer Hans Reichel not only developed new ways of playing the instrument but also new ways of building guitars, pushing the boundary of what a guitar could be and how it could sound.

PERSONNEL & TRACKLIST

Side A
A1. Albert Giménez – Conte Xinés
A2. John Lawson – Time Will Say Nothing But I Told You So
A3. Roberto Menabò – Il Ritorno Dell'Enola Gay
A4. Dominique – Aquarium

Side B
B1. Maurizio Angeletti – Zen & The Stone Game
B2. Hans Reichel – Could Be Nice Too
B3. Mickeranno – Dai Vetri
B4. Axel Schultheiss – Pas Des Deux
B5. Norman Teeling – Two Rainbows

Side C
C1. Bojan Drobež – Krog Na Vodi
C2. Gereon Piller / Gerhard Krause – Blue Winter
C3. Peter Finger – Second Love
C4. Andy Bole – That Way

Side D
D1. Enrico Marcandalli – Il Divano Arancione
D2. Dave Maddison – Phase Shift By Earth
D3. Martin Kolbe + Ralf Illenberger – Veits Tanz