Derek Gripper, Paulo Angeli

Paolo Angeli:

Whatever you want to call it, nobody else is doing it quite like this. Paolo Angeli, the Sardinian guitar sorcerer, extracts beautiful multi-layered music from his uniquely prepared guitar; a hybrid orchestra of an instrument with multi-directional strings, hammers, pedals and propellers which he bows, strikes, plucks and strums. With this singular instrument he improvises and composes unclassifiable music, suspended between free jazz, minimal pop, post-folk and pre-everything else. He has collaborated with Pat Metheny, Fred Frith, Takumi Fukushima and many others; the diversity of sounds and inspiration always feeling coherent and cohesive at his fingertips.

Derek Gripper:

For over ten years guitarist Derek Gripper has produced some of South Africa’s most extraordinary musical works by fusing the country’s disparate creative traditions with styles throughout the world. His music draws on European classical traditions, avant-garde Brazilian works, Malian kora works, Cape Town’s folk styles, and even Indian classical music, all the while synthesizing them into a style uniquely his own. Widely lauded for his recent exploration of Mali’s greatest kora players, Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko, alongside the music of guitarist Ali Farka Touré, Gripper creates a new form of classical guitar music out of some of Africa’s richest musical heritage.