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While Brady’s three previous Ambiances Magnétiques releases were all focused more on his work as a composer, GO [Guitar Obsession] brings the guitar back to centre stage, making it clear why Guitar Player Magazine has named the Montréal-based composer and musician “one of the 30 most important guitarists for the future of the instrument”. The goal of the CD was to create a recording focused primarily on Brady’s guitar playing and composing, rather than on complex studio technology. Overdubbing, looping and computer processing were part of the production process, but they always take a back seat to the sound and texture of a solo guitar performance.
blogue@press-3329
press@3329
Montréal’s Ambiances Magnétiques has released some 169 records since 1984 with a pretty remarkable batting record. The original members of the collective (including Jean Derome, René Lussier, Martin Tétreault and Danielle Palardy Roger) have for the most part continued to do challenging work, while younger musicians have been brought into the fold.
Tim Brady is a talented guitarist with a rockish sensibility and plenty of jazz chops. He loves his instrument the way Jasper Johns loves paint: thick and apparent. His 2002 release Twenty Quarter-Inch Jacks was, in that sense, wholly satisfying. As is, in a certain way, his new offering, GO. It’s diverse, it’s raw, it’s pretty, it’s precise. Four compositions of his own and four by others, all strong but as a whole uneven. The disc feels as if Brady is trying to show off many approaches and styles he can pull off. And pull them off he does, so well that it sounds as if it could be a compilation album.
Likewise pianist Gianni Lenoci’s wandering sextet record Sextant. At center, the group is a traditional enough line-up of keyboards, guitar, bass, drum and two saxophones, although the keyboards and guitars are sometimes electronically augmented. Two tracks not penned by Lenoci are Eric Dolphy’s Miss Ann and Morton Feldman’s Intermission VI. Lenoci’s pieces seem to follow the two worlds, skipping between minimalist and jazzy pieces, generally strong tracks, but ultimately seeming to be more a display of diversity than creating a unified feeling.
The same charge could be leveled against clarinetist Lori Freedman’s new CD, culled from three nights of live performances with different trios. The difference here is that the record is exceptional regardless of her motives. A set with guitarist Lussier and turntablist Tétreault is a fascinating, warm rumble. A matchup with saxophonist Derome and guitarist/percussionist Rainer Wiens is strangely moody with touches of spaghetti western. And with percussionist Roger and bassist Nicolas Caloia she explores quiet, extended-improv techniques and jazzier explorations. Despite the different sources, the album holds together surprisingly well.
A different sort of project is presented on the guitar duet by Arthur Bull and Daniel Heïkalo. It’s the sort of bashing-of-minds improv one would expect to find, at this point, in clubs and cafés around the world — busy, sometimes riotously so, and introspective, as if some personal space is being invaded simply by listening. Whereas the other discs ask to be listened to, Bull and Heïkalo seem forever to be changing the subject because a listener walked in.
blogue@press-3335
press@3335

blogue@press-3264
press@3264
Montréal-based guitarist and composer Brady has been getting a lot of hype in guitar and improv circles, and this release is meant as a showcase for his varied fretwork. GO, short for “Guitar Obsession” is chock full of variety, from jazz-rock tinged tunes, to loops , some odd blues. There is even a suite, Frame 22: Switch, which incorporates most of the styles into an electronic guitar workout that manages to be rocking and moving at the same time.
As couple of the songs, GO, Yellow, Add Green, and As Softly Sounds were constructed slowly, between 1984 and this year. Oddly, these are the most striaght-forward of the tunes, making one wonder why they took so long to build. The final four tracks are compositions by others, including Jean-François Laporte, Laurence Crane, Tristan Murail, and a beautiful solo ballad by Alexandre Burton. While Brady may not be one of the great hopes for the future of the guitar, as has been hyped in a few quarters, he certainly shows himself to be a guitarist who is not afraid to take risks, and who has an ear open for the instruments possibilities in many forums. (8/10)
blogue@press-3242
press@3242
Il curriculum di Brady è nutrito e degno d’interesse. E forse in un contesto storico-biografico acquista senso Go, album compilativo, raccolta di exempla delle tecniche per chitarra e di approcci stilistico-tecnologici. L’unità poetica se ne va a gambe all’aria e il tutto appare adatto ad un corso di musicologia più che ad una fruizione appagante. Brady, certo, è un chitarrista extra-colto completo e fantasioso, senza preclusioni di genere (ora jazz, ora rock, ora heavy, ora minimal), peraltro propenso ad architetture sonore ben strutturate più che ad impeti impro. Ma, siano i simil contrappunti per strumento e loops o tracce preregistrate (Go, un tema confidenziale), siano le operazioni di decostruzione che portano il timbro dello strumento dal metal al blues (Yellow, Add Green), sia il duetto stocastico con il programma MAX/MSP che modifica in tempo reale gli input percussivi della cassa di una chitarra (Unplugged), si resta, nello spazio-tempo di questo cd, ad un livello di eccellenza interpretativa che purtroppo non vince la stucchevolezza didascalica. Può interessare parecchio ma emoziona assai poco.
blogue@press-3420
press@3420
For his fourth release on Montréal’s Dame label, composer and guitarist Tim Brady has created an album solely focused on the guitar — hence the not so subtle title Go [guitar obsession]. While his previous works were conceived with more compositional intent, this decadent 12-track effort marks a substantial directional shift that allows Brady to offer a rather dizzying display of his range. Filled with obsession and guitar addiction, GC [guitar crack] could easily have been a suitable secondary album title.
Don’t look for me to dissect this contemporary guitar oeuvre, Brady’s first solo guitar release in six years, because quite frankly GO is nearly impossible to classify (and of a very rare futuristic breed). From jazzy abstract noodling to more (further) deconstructed avant-garde improvisation, it offers numerous artistic pursuits you should listen to with a clean open-minded slate.
While the selections are mixed between studio and live recordings, most of the tracks are of the electric solo kind (and easily the most appealing of the lot); while others are guitar excursions with live electronics, built around the rapid jump from one sound to another. Brady does utilize a few tools (such as multi-tracking, looping and digital enhancements), but it leaves a resolutely secondary impact to the album’s overriding guitar-first philosophy. Not once was I ever confused enough to believe I was listening to something OTHER than a radical de-tuned guru and his guitar.
Oddly enough, my favorite pieces are light years away from each other— as in the first and last selections. Go is an updated piece dating back some 20 years which offers solos and loops “based around the note B, with chromatic scales in contrary motion, and a hint of a minor blues” - to quote the artist himself. A lovely late repetitive twist offers a feverish Steve Reich impression and a few jazz sprinkles. While my other favorite, the album closer Bobby J, offers simple elegant chords through a volume pedal and delay, performed with resonance and depth (not to mention a world of wonder).
PS - If you don’t believe me about his talent, you’ll be pleased to find out that Brady and Marjan Mozetich just won the 2006 Jan V Matejcek Prize for concert music, awarded by SOCAN on November 21 and 22, 2006.
blogue@press-3191
press@3191
Also available in digital format (MP3, etc.) at your favourite online store.