Mark Jenkins – New Inventions For Electric Guitar

Description

1) Echosphere (9.57)
2) Ostalgie (9.56)
3) Protocol Omega (10.04)
4) Nightvisions (19.05)

With great respect to the genius of the late Manuel Göttsching of Ashra/Ash Ra Tempel, London-based synthesizer composer MARK JENKINS is releasing a CD-only album featuring no synthesizers – “NEW INVENTIONS FOR ELECTRIC GUITAR”.

Like Göttsching’s original, and albums by Gunther Schickert and others, the new CD features only electric guitars looped, filtered and processed to take the roles of sequencers, synths and keyboards. Apart from some drums and ambient atmospheric recordings, the album’s created entirely with electric guitars, including a custom-built perspex Strat, and the custom-built SG with Bigsby tremolo featured on the cover, of the type played by Manuel Göttsching on the album “Blackouts”.

With more time to spread out than the vinyl release of the original, this new CD also takes in the tape echo and “gliss guitar” styles of Steve Hillage, as well as touching on other experimental guitar techniques used by Robert Fripp, Richard Pinhas, John Martyn and Mike Oldfield.

Long tracks build from gliding opening textures to pulsing rhythmic loops and patterns using the latest guitar processing techniques while fitting readily into the “krautrock” tradition of Neu!, Can, La Düsseldorf and Michael Rother. On the epic 19-minute closing track “Nightvisions” you can also hear the E-Bow “infinite sustain” effect alongside the Electrix multi-channel digital looper.

CD available through mail order companies and Amazon UK. No download or streaming option.

Extracts video at youtu.be/Ee3mGbsph0Q