Andreas Willers

Juhani Silvola
Wolf Hour Roundelay
Shhpuma SHH 072 CD

Preparation and electronic add-ons can help convert the world’s most popular instrument – the guitar – into a multi-faceted sound source. Using that as a base and moving through multiple improvisations is what characterizes these specialized sessions which are solo guitar discs only in name. On search & rescue German Andreas Willers, who has worked in the past with musicians like Urs Leimgruber, ranges over a dozen selections with the aid of guitar devices, electric bass, percussion, drums, banjo and voice, with drummer Boris Bell on board for one track. Meanwhile Finnish/Norwegian guitarist Juhani Silvola, who has played with Nils Petter Molvaer, uses prepared acoustic guitar and electronics during his nine selections.

Essentially what this means is that Willers assumes the persona of a Rock lead guitarist, funk bassist or folk-Blues specialist, while the simultaneous backing replicates clamor hat could come from a gearwheel ratchet, drum kit or any variety of idiophones. Because of electronic processes he can play guitar licks and banjo twangs plus corrosive cranks and percussion rumbles simultaneously. At the same time, in spite of undulating static and bubbly pulses from the electronics, guitar hero-like flanges and vocalized murmurs, fragments preserve melodic remnants. Only with John Coltrane’s “Big Nick” does his reimaging seem to fail. A combination of prestissimo flanges and buzzes mixed with pseudo-drum pulses grind down the theme beyond recognition.

More palatable are fully original tracks such as the concluding “Hier & Als Auch” and a few where Blues licks or folksy runs are put to best use. Some are mini-essays in responsive finger picking that in some case alternate or replace prosaic string strums with bottleneck guitar-like jabs. Others, like “ Blue Shoe Hypocricy” change character part way through. Establishing a groove consisting of electric bass riffs, rat-tata-tat drumming and tweaked guitar tones, the exposition divides into one guitar playing near-Blues runs while another first decorates then thickens the backing riffs, until cymbal claps end the piece. As for “Hier & Als Auch”, it is one of the tracks that make most use of electronics. Burbling wave form expansions move from one terminal to another at the same time as dobro-like clangs and banjo clanks reverberate alongside. As the duality is resolved with static crackles, rocket ship launching noises intercut shaking guitar surges until all textures unite for a synthesized finale.

Perhaps because he’s using an acoustic rather than an electric guitar but Silvola’s disc comes across as slower-paced and more relaxed than Willers’ tour-de-force. Many of the pieces project warmth with architectural designs that have every emphasized note answered by an equivalent strum or pulse. This is obvious from “A New Refutation Of Time”, the first track, onwards with tolling bell-like judders and sharpened vibrations becoming a swinging melody that reflects back onto itself. Warmth and motion don’t preclude experimentation though. Some sequences emphasize terse vibrations from strings high up on the guitar neck, Blues licks projected from the instrument’s centre or in the case of “Meditation (First Light)”, a droning sitar-sounding introduction that later oscillates to paired bass guitar like sonority and succinct mid-range guitar flanges. These electronic enhancement motifs are often diffused to the point that concise sections are elongated enough to saturate the sound field even as textures ricochet back and forth. However the full extent of the multiple identities a prepared guitar can take on are reflected on tracks such as “Night Song From The Canopy” and “Procession (Infinite Regress)”. Two separate motifs run through the former without fissure, bow-sawing string pressure that creates aviary sounds; and metallic plectrum pressure that concentrates all of the background real estate. As for ”Procession…” keyboard-like ringing pulsations swell alongside rugged clanks and long-lined strums, until decisive Blues licks define the piece with the most lyrical motif of the session.

Commonly the piano is referred to as having the capabilities of an orchestra. Willers and Silvola prove that with the right preparations the same can be said for the guitar.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: search: 1. Trimob 2. Forbidden Sporgersi 3. Bummer 4. Ohntid 5. Blue Shoe Hypocricy 6. Tief In Teltow 7. Ipasoy 8. Reality Kickin’ In 9. Big Nick 10. MayD* 11. Like, Yeah 12. Hier & Als Auch

Personnel: search: Andreas Willers (guitar devices, electric bass, percussion, drums, banjo and voice) and Boris Bell (drums)*

Track Listing: Wolf: 1. A New Refutation Of Time 2. World Of Wings And 3. Wolf Hour Roundelay 4. The Eternal Present 5. Meditation (Last Light) 6. Night Song From The Canopy 7. Meditation (First Light) 8. Procession (Infinite Regress) 9. Ripples On The River Of Time.

Personnel: Wolf: Juhani Silvola (prepared acoustic guitar and electronics)