Home Made Music 
Eric Wallack : Grendel (improvised solo guitar) (US,2002)***°'
I remember Eric Wallack for his experimental improvisations with Greg Segal (see small review at the soft progressive experimental guitarists review page) and became very curious as to his other works. I was suspicious to read "recorded intentionally on failing audio equipment! This compact disc will reveal substantial flaws in the original master tape!" with in the booklet "intentionally recorded in mono on an ailing reel-to-reel tape machine", with a bit more information on the recording : "Grendel" was recorded in one take and is presented here in real time. No editing or splicing has occurred. Track numbers have been added for convenience." All dangerous territory. It needs talent to convince in a 45 minutes improvisation. Every thought counts. Every failure, a disaster. First part surprisingly succeeds the test very well. On the second part Eric wants to get more out of his guitar and box, starting off with exorcising like playing, that I at first believe would have sounded better in stereo and with some edited echoes. It's free music and expresses the battle with the mythical beast called Grendel explained as "I freely improvised this music on "Grendel", my late 40's Silverstone acoustic guitar, so-called due to its monstrous implications. Like the mythical beast that bears its namesake, Grendel is big, ugly and dangerous-to play as it is to battle with it. ...This project is about seeing opportunities within disadvantages... This recording is my attempt to document my relationship with Grendle in a single, multi-movement free-improvisation". Grendle is a living creature and Eric gets control over it. "I'm ripping it's arm off" he says. Not really, but the winner at the end is Eric, controlling him eventually. The odd sounds transform one by one, in all with a certain ease, to part three. A part that would have been nice in a different way too, with the best equipment, but the essences are still there, thrown back to a mathematical abstract degree or level in describing new sounds of a mood (made on the edge of usual or more recognizable or expected sounds in a guitar).*(partly it reminded me of the Jean-Paul Bourelly track on "156 strings"). This new area gets even more variation and forms by increasing the speed in fingerpicking, in a scratching and itching way. In the next part, he (even) gets a bluesy rhythm, without taking refuge in any repeated form. It is instead very varied in its play. The guitar at the end growls or grimaces a last time when the control over it becomes complete, and as derived from the guitar viewpoint- as a creature, as from a genius being a superconscious entity.
Eric Wallack has succeeded with this release in creating a document of a performance that goes even beyond what he describes in the booklet ideas.
