SONDHEIM, ALAN - Ski/NN

A recording of solo acoustic guitar and alpine zither songs, this release will delight those familiar with his early Riverboat and ESP Disc recordings as well as the audience for experimental solo guitar -- while creating an audience for experimental solo alpine zither! On this release, Alan performs on the 1927 martin tenor guitar, 19th century parlour guitar, 1920s prime alpine zither and 1860s elegie alpine zither. Dan Wharburton of Paris Transatlantic said of the reissue of The Songs: an endearingly ramshackle melting pot of free jazz, blues and folk (if Eugene Chadbourne later described his work as free improvised country & western bebop then this is free improvised Hawaiian flamenco gospel blues music theatre). Its influence resonates (indirectly, one imagines, unless there are more copies of the original vinyl in circulation than I imagine) in the free folk of todays New Weird America scene. Now listeners have the opportunity to hear for themselves the present day song form manifestations of this overlooked creative master. - Fire Museum.