FRACTAL GUITAR

Stephan Thelen is a guitarist from Switzerland who to my surprise has been releasing solo albums since 1990 right up to 2022, 15 of them! I knew him from the band SONAR who play the same style of music and he was there right from their start with that 2012 debut. I personally have found that my favourite SONAR music is the newer stuff with David Torn participating, he takes them to another level and Torn is on here.

"The five tracks on this album grew out of a mind-boggling amount of activity and crystallized out of myriad soundfiles, recorded across the Western hemisphere during the last 3 years. Thanks to all my friends who helped me pull it off, especially to Markus Reuter(STICK MEN) who shared his exceptional talents and endless creativity with me on every step of the way."

Recorded at various locations across Europe and North America between August 2015 and April 2018. Thelen also mentions "The other desire I had was to work with and to have some serious fun with a few of the many great guitarists I've met over the years to create an album that features some of the more forward-looking possibilities of the most mysterious, compelling and eclectic of all instruments, the electric guitar."

Ten musicians besides Thelen with a different lineup for each of the five tracks. Matt Tate provides the bass with his Touch guitar on the first four tracks while Thelen adds Touch bass to the closer. We have percussionist Andi Pupato on one track while drummers Manuel Pasquinelli(SONAR) and Benno Kaiser share that duty each being on two songs.

The rest are guitarists. Barry Cleveland with his guitar atmospheres and bowhammer, Jon Durant cloud guitar, David Torn electric guitar and live looping, Stephan Thelen fractal guitar, blue sky guitar, touch bass, tritone guitar, granular loops, organ and samples, Bill Walker electric guitar, live looping, Markus Reuter(STICK MEN) Touch guitar, soundscapes and Henry Kaiser electric guitar.

This album sounds absolutely incredible, I don't know what else to say. Over 67 minutes of bliss for yours truly. I had this in my car when I picked up my two kids, both in their late 20's taking them to the family Christmas dinner and both of them went on and on about the music. I mean this sounds different, futuristic even with these unusual guitar sounds. This might be the easiest decision I've ever made when giving 5 stars.