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Marc Ducret - Tower, vol.4

Grego Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar Blog

Marc Ducret's Tower, Vol 4 (Ayler AYLCD 121) finds the guitarist switching gears. This is an unaccompanied guitar solo album with Marc on acoustic.

It's not at all ordinary however, in whatever way "ordinary" might connote for a solo acoustic set. There is an interesting mix of both conventional and unconventional sounds produced--by introducing prepared objects (it sounds like) and unusual playing techniques into the situation.

So sometimes the guitar might sound like a Chinese Pipa lute, or by the use of unusual singingly sustained harmonics, sound like a Southeast Asian stringed instrument, and so forth.

Even when the sound is conventional, his musical approach to line and chord is highly original and comes through strongly on these pieces. There's perhaps a hint of classic Beefheartian abstraction, bluesiness, and then otherwise simply not what you might expect.

A composer's guitarist? A guitarist's composer? Both.

This is an extraordinary record. Ducret must be heard. And the very short, concluding rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Electricity"! Brilliant.