Guitar Trek – Bluetongue (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:04 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Naxos
Australia’s premier guitar quartet Guitar Trek reflects life in modern Australia with a programme that showcases works of immense colour and rhythmic vitality. The album includes the rich melodic and nostalgic quality of Richard Charlton’s Five Tails in Cold Blood (including the eponymous Bluetongue); the driving energy and shifting timbres of Nigel Westlake’s Six Fish that adds the distinctive sound of the 12-string guitar and dobro to the mix; and at its heart the music of Philip Houghton, one of the most original and poetically imaginative guitar composers of our time.
The guitar can cross musical boundaries like no other instrument, its shape-shifting qualities conveying it instantly, from biting twang to gentle iridescence. A guitar quartet performing Australian contemporary works may seem one-dimensional on paper, but this is a truly thrilling and beautiful album. It helps, of course, that Guitar Trek’s skill and musicianship on each of their myriad instruments is staggering—Nigel Westlake’s cinematic 6 Fish shimmers on the group’s steel-stringed instruments, while Richard Charlton’s Guitar Quartet No. 8 “Five Tails in Cold Blood” inspires ensemble work of mesmerizing precision with fizzing, jazz-inspired licks. Phillip Houghton’s kaleidoscopic, emotive Opal explores every inch of the guitars’ musical potential. Ending the album, Elena Kats-Chernin’s “Bleached Memories” pays a lighthearted, ragtime homage to the guitar’s Baroque heritage.
Tracklist:
01. Guitar Trek – 6 Fish (Version for Guitar Quartet): No. 1, Guitarfish (02:12)
02. Guitar Trek – 6 Fish (Version for Guitar Quartet): No. 2, Sunfish (03:28)
03. Guitar Trek – 6 Fish (Version for Guitar Quartet): No. 3, Spangled Emperor (01:16)
04. Guitar Trek – 6 Fish (Version for Guitar Quartet): No. 4, Sling-Jaw Wrasse (01:55)
05. Guitar Trek – 6 Fish (Version for Guitar Quartet): No. 5, Leafy Sea Dragon (02:34)
06. Guitar Trek – 6 Fish (Version for Guitar Quartet): No. 6, Flying Fish (04:01)
07. Guitar Trek – Guitar Quartet No. 8 “5 Tails in Cold Blood”: I. Shingleback (03:05)
08. Guitar Trek – Guitar Quartet No. 8 “5 Tails in Cold Blood”: II. Lace Monitor (03:20)
09. Guitar Trek – Guitar Quartet No. 8 “5 Tails in Cold Blood”: III. Manta Ray Ballet (02:56)
10. Guitar Trek – Guitar Quartet No. 8 “5 Tails in Cold Blood”: IV. Water Dragon Dreams (02:57)
11. Guitar Trek – Guitar Quartet No. 8 “5 Tails in Cold Blood”: V. Bluetongue (02:47)
12. Guitar Trek – Nocturne (Version for Guitar Quartet) (03:22)
13. Guitar Trek – Opals: I. Black Opal (02:18)
14. Guitar Trek – Opals: II. Water Opal (04:10)
15. Guitar Trek – Opals: III. White Opal (03:18)
16. Guitar Trek – News from Nowhere: I. Flux. Being Lost in Long Grass-Trance. Seeing the River (07:57)
17. Guitar Trek – News from Nowhere: II. Drift. Slow Boat to Nowhere… Stars on Night Water in the Aqua-Realm (03:01)
18. Guitar Trek – News from Nowhere: III. Rock. The Arrival… And the Rocks Hum and Hover (05:45)
19. Guitar Trek – Wave Radiance (Colour: The Skin of Resonance) [Version for Guitar Quartet] (06:32)
20. Guitar Trek – Bleached Memories (10:03)
