*2023 stock* Nice Music presents the debut solo LP from guitarist and composer Alexander Garsden. Following his 2020 collection of guitar duets (with Tetuzi Akiyama, Julia Reidy and David Stackenäs) on US label Marginal Frequency, 'Solo Guitar I' is the first instalment in a series of releases documenting Garsden's work as a soloist over the last ten years.
This recording presents three works for steel-string guitar – contrasting in style and scale, yet linked by Garsden’s fascination with acoustic phenomena, his focussed interweaving of cyclical rhythmic variations and the stamina of his distinctive fingerstyle approach. Opening with the cascading, virtuosic study in harmonic and rhythmic density ‘Voiles’, the album regresses to a decade-old nod to his early influences in the post-Bailey idiom 'Nine Ravens (Variations)' before concluding with the side-long, raga-like peregrination in just intonation and metric modulation, '(A)WTG'. Pristinely mixed by Joe Talia and Anthony Pateras and expertly pressed by Program Records, this release captures the colours and tactility of Garsden's playing in immersive and intimate detail for the close listener to sink into.
Garsden's previous work includes performing and recording alongside a host of celebrated experimental musicians (Golden Fur, Erkki Veltheim & Rohan Drape, Radu Malfatti, Jim Denley, Oren Ambarchi), Melbourne’s underground folk acts (True Strength, Francis Plagne, Yuko Kono, Ned Collette, Grand Salvo) and notated compositions (commissioned by Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Speak Percussion, Michael Kieran Harvey, Jessica Aszodi). He co-directed the INLAND Concert Series from 2014-2019, presenting over 50 concerts of new notated, improvised, and electroacoustic music across Australia.
