Alexander Garsden

Solo Guitar I

published in The Wire No.452, London, 2021

Excerpt

Alexander Garsden live and on record has produced many discursive statements on classical guitar performance. They neither radicalize technique nor flout compositional axioms, but instead appear grounded by his close relationship with the instrument's design and its sonority. Solo Guitar I's opening "Voiles" commences in full Romantic tenor as trilling chords evoke the rippling patterns on a sail caught by deviations in wind velocity. The piece descends into atonal pools: Britten set sail but never reached his destination.

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Text © Philip Brophy. Image © Nice Music.