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CD
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RER PA8
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"An amazing record. It's beautifully recorded and almost impossible to believe that such a layered and polyphonic music, with chords, percussion, lead lines, bass lines, harmonies, string sections and sometimes voice could all be produced by one person in real time, without overdubs or loops. But it is. The instrument, a specially designed and augmented Sardinian guitar (almost the size of a cello) is equipped with motors, pedals, individual string mic'ing, and extra appendages; and of course there are the usual pedal-driven effects, intelligently and sparingly used. It's a record - and a music - that defies all description, except to say that it's tuneful, inventive, surprising, harmonically rich, generically diverse and sonically jaw-dropping. A masterpiece. A few words about the guitar; Over time Paulo has significantly rebuilt a large traditional Sardinian guitar, adding sympathetic strings, foot operated hammers that strike the strings from below and built-in electric mini fans (he built a similar instrument in 2003 for Pat Metheny). It is played rather like a cello, vertically, spiked to the floor and often with a bow."
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RER PA6
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"Welcome to Paulo's sixth release for ReR, an extraordinary collection of pieces that explore the full range of his highly modified, extended and prepared Sardinian guitar. And although it's just him and electricity, it seldom sounds like fewer than three people playing. There are twelve fine compositions, each as crafted as a short novel, and beautifully recorded. Paulo's is a music that pretty much defies genre or category; accessible, experimental, tuneful, tactile and ambient - with a folk root, a rock inflection, and a contemporary outlook."
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CD/DVD DUALDISC
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RER PA4
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Paolo Angeli's live soundtrack to the film (viewable on the DVD) by Nanni Angeli. "This disc will play in stereo on a CD player and with film and 5.1 surround sound (or stereo) on a DVD player or computer. The music, as always, is prodigious, sounding like a small band, but played by one person in real time (as the film attests). In this format, you can also see the instrument -- close to a highly rebuilt and extended giant Sardinian guitar -- with many sympathetic and extra strings, motor-driven hurdy gurdy wheels, whirling strings, springs and other appendages, played like a cello, vertically, with bow, fingers, plectra and machines. However Heath Robinson it may appear, it is clearly under Paulo's hands, a highly serious and extraordinarily flexible beast that requires and has given rise to new playing techniques. The programme of compositions here navigates through highly-organized additive rhythms, freer Frith-like pointillism and some seemingly impossible mini-orchestrations. The film, professionally made, follows the performance, occasionally interpolating abstract passages and processed images. A remarkable player with a unique instrument, playing a music entirely his own."
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RER PA3
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"Another extraordinary release by Sardinian virtuoso, Paolo Angeli, this time featuring compositions by Fred Frith and Björk -- all played solo in real time (though when you hear it, it's hard to believe it) on his highly customized and extended, electrified, giant Sardinian folk guitar. A tour de force of technique and at the same time highly musical; and there is so much going on here at any given time that it is difficult to relate what your ears tell you to just one Frankenstein instrument. Dense enough that it rewards listening to a few songs at a time, though you could probably also dance to it. This is Paulo's 3rd release for ReR; the first introduced his remarkable instrument and more remarkable technique, the second was of closely scored, very large ensemble works; here he returns to the guitar but under the discipline of the real-time realization of written and arranged compositions."
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