Allan Bryant: Space Guitars

The American new music and avant-garde composer Allan Bryant began his career during the 1960s in the Rome-based ensemble Musica Elettronica Viva alongside Alvin Curran and Frederic Rzewski. This production for C.R.I. is an astonishing study of the electric guitar taken out of the rock context and used as a source generator of rich and complex harmonic music. Similarities to Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, and Phill Niblock's music stem from their shared infatuations with the power of the amplified six-string and their will to exploit the less frequently explored sonic palette of the instrument, which knows no limits. Space Guitars is a drone-based work of astonishing and powerful proportions that, while shamefully overlooked in the gamut of avant-garde music, is clearly an influence on Sonic Youth and Elliott Sharp's textured soundscapes.