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| Roman Matin's Music for Electric Guitar Music for Electric Guitar is the third album for Russian guitarist, Roman Matin, but this electric solo guitar session is the first available to American and European audiences. Classic jazz guitarist Paul Metzke characterizes Matin's music with these words: “Excellent classical/compositional approach to playing jazz guitar." All of the pieces are composed by Matin and performed as if Erik Satie wrote for electric solo guitar. It is not surprising that Anthony Coleman said about this music, “It's lovely...veiled and kind of Satie-esque." Polytonal and polyrhythmic technique characterizes the album as the guitar sounds like an entire orchestra - the bass parts harmoniously fitting into the musical narration, and constituting an elastic platform. Music for Electric Guitar is extremely mature for the young guitarist - lyrical, beautiful and disturbing at the same time, it transmits a complex world of human experiences. Short, concise, but informative pieces flow into one another, with the music changeable yet evocative of a single mood at the same time. Matin is lyrical and even partly nostalgic, with the permanent rustling of vinyl records perfectly complementing his slow, majestic music, reminiscent of a time when “the criterion of beauty meant so much," as a musician remarked in a recent interview. Short pieces are grouped in twos and threes, the longest piece consisting of five parts. Denman Maroney, speaking about Matin's “Toy Tunes," says: “The pieces are very fragile indeed, like a toy, and there is definitely something fairy-like in the music." Music For Electric Guitar can be compared to Bela Bartok's “Mikrokosmos" in mood and compositional approach. Matin's crystal-clear academic discipline precludes the recurrence of unnecessary notes. The music might even be called pedantic, but its jazz sentiments make it emancipated in spirit. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |