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James Blackshaw is a British guitarist who debuted with
Celeste (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, 2004 - Tompkins Square, 2008), that contains a two-part fingerpicking-intense raga-folk improvisation for twelve-string acoustic guitar in the vein of
John Fahey.
After the intermezzo of droning ambience Lost Prayers & Motionless Dances (Digitalis, 2004 - Tompkins Square, 2008),
Sunshrine (Digitalis, 2005 - Tompkins Square, 2008) delivered another
30-minute masterpiece.
After O True Believers (2006), containing
Transient Life In Twilight (11:38) and
Elk With Jade Eyes (18:15) with tanpura and harmonium,
Blackshaw returned with
The Cloud of Unknowing (Tompkins Square, 2007), one of his best.
The Cloud of Unknowing is a transcendent Fahey-ian eleven-minute guitar solo but its shimmering cascades of notes sculpt a dense wavering tapestry that
is uniquely his. Ditto for the primal energy released by the shorter
Mirror Speaks.
The guitar sounds like a harpsichord in the slower raga-tinged beginning of
Stained Glass Windows, but then Blackshaw weaves together techniques
of rapid pattern iteration and modulated melodies. After ten minutes the
music decays into five minutes of pure dissonance.
The strings and xylophone of Running to the Ghost
and the musique concrete of Cloud Collapses are less successful detours.
Brethren of the Free Spirit is a collaboration between
James Blackshaw on guitar and Josef Van Wissem on lute from the Netherlands.
The mini-album All Things are from Him through Him and in Him
(audioMER, 2008) runs the gamut
with aplomb
from the dissonant sonata of
How The Unencumbered Soul Advises that One Not Refuse the Calls of a Good Spirit
to the minimalist rhapsody
All Things are from Him through Him and in Him.
The Brethren of the Free Spirit then released
The Wolf Also Shall Dwell With The Lamb (Important Records, 2008).
Litany Of Echoes (Tompkins Square, 2008) contained two
solo-piano pieces inspired by minimalist repetition of the 1970s and a piece in which the guitar is juxtaposed against violin and viola.
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