a r t i s t : 4g
t i t l e : Cloud
d a t e : 2005
l a b e l : Erstwhile (erstwhile 046-2)
g e n r e : Noise
r l s.  d a t e : October/2005
t r a c k s : 03
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 180,8 MB

Keith Rowe, Oren Ambarchi, Christian Fennesz and Toshimaru
Nakamura are four of the most prominent and influential
musicians in experimental music today, each with extensive
discographies and distinctive styles. In mid-2004, they formed
the Four Gentlemen of the Guitar (4g), and played a series of
shows in Europe and Canada, three of which are contained on
cloud. The underlying concept of 4g is to unite four artists
who each began their musical explorations as guitarists,
keeping that mindset as a crucial underpinning of their work as
they've each explored increasingly abstract territory, both
with and without guitars.

Rowe's history has been well documented at this point. Having
mostly performed within AMM until the late 90's, he's since
been involved in a wide range of projects, including a slew of
the most prominent Erstwhile releases. He's the cornerstone
musician for the label, and the 4g grouping was his idea.

Ambarchi is making his Erstwhile debut (except for the 7 guitar
disc in the AMPLIFY 2002 box set). Born in Sydney in 1969, he
has been performing live since 1986. His recent work as a solo
artist on Touch is very well known and respected, and he's been
working with Rowe in various small groupings since 2000.
Ambarchi is also co-organiser of the What Is Music? Festival,
Australia's premier annual showcase of local and international
experimental music.

Fennesz, known to a wider audience for his studio-constructed
records like Endless Summer and Venice, is also a superb
collaborative improviser, as documented on projects like
FennO'Berg (w/ Jim O'Rourke and Pita), Wrapped Islands (w/
Polwechsel), Live at the LU (w/ Rowe), and ErstLive 004 (w/
Sachiko M, Otomo Yoshihide, and Peter Rehberg).

Since 1998, Nakamura has been exploring the possibilities of
his "no-input mixing board" in contexts ranging from solo to
collaborations with Rowe, Gunter Muller, Sachiko M, Andrea
Neumann, John Butcher and Sean Meehan. Nakamura was a prominent
presence throughout the AMPLIFY 2002 box set, appearing on five
of the seven CDs, an integral part of the Good Morning Good
Night and ErstLive 005 releases, and will be releasing the
much-anticipated follow up to the highly acclaimed Weather Sky
CD with Rowe in early 2006.

There have been two larger group releases featuring three of
these four musicians, Afternoon Tea (Ritornell) has Rowe,
Ambarchi and Fennesz, and the 7 guitar disc on the AMPLIFY 2002
box has Rowe, Ambarchi and Nakamura, but the 4g project is the
first time all four have performed together. cloud contains
three performances (from Vand'ouevre, Paris and Victoriaville)
from their seven city tour in May/June 2004, totalling over two
hours of music. The widely differing aesthetics of the four
musicians meld fluidly, forming hovering, delicate masses of
sound. The packaging meshes Rowe's striking cover painting with
Friederike Paetzold's eyecatching design.

|| THE FOUR GENTLEMEN OF THE GUITAR ||

At the centre of this project is the guitar, perhaps the
world's most ubiquitous instrument. Here we are looking at its
extended possibilities - that is to say rather than summing up
guitar-ness in a Picasso-like way, we would be more interested
in Mondrianesque extensions.

Christian and Toshi, although both guitar players, have
performed in public mostly on instruments that have become
physical and musical extensions of the guitar. In my case,
along with Oren, we preserved the basic form of the guitar,
obviously exploring its "non-guitarlike" possibilities, but
always maintaining its essential "guitar-ness".

How might a Japanese, an Australian, an Austrian and an
Englishman with very different musical and artistic
personalities explore in real-time the world's most global
instrument, incorporating boomerang loop stations, digital
effects, mixing boards, computers etc.?

The quartet form "at first was a medium that allowed four
gentlemen amateurs to converse musically"*, and from Haydn's
time became the appropriate medium that produced music of the
deepest personal expression and contemplative profundity.

So here we have four gentlemen, the guitar, a conversation
between the analog and the digital, the north and the south.

Keith Rowe

* "the string quartet" a history, Paul Griffiths

http://www.erstwhilerecords.com/catalog/046.html

for more info:
www.shef.ac.uk/misc/rec/ps/efi/musician/mrowe.html
www.orenambarchi.com
www.fennesz.com
www.japanimprov.com/tnakamura

Disc 1

01-Perfect Grass                                          [23:47]
02-Deformed Veil                                          [38:16]

Disc 2

01-Yellow Cloud                                           [62:26]

124:2