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Nick Thompson : Lend me your ears (US,2002)****
This guitarist was recommended to me by a specialised guitar website after I asked them to give me an example of someone who's able to play inventively with sound and composition and ideas, but with clear composition and ideas, fusing eventually various ideas and styles.
A shame that I am not a guitarist who is able to describe guitar releases with the insights of a gifted musician well, but from what I hear I can already tell this was a perfect recommendation.
"Serenading the L train" keeps the perfect balance between spontaneous easiness with a recognisable but original tune and a skilful invention which always is only present at the neutral spots between the fundamental clarity in melody, therefore completely convincing in maturity, skilfulness, relaxedness, spontaneity, integrity. This is followed by another beautiful fingerpicking track, "Song for Michael Hedges".
Nick Thompson has worked his whole life together with Taylor Ho Bynum who plays the tempered and jazzy cornet on three tracks of the album, perfectly timed to open the sound alternation.
All other tracks are structured like the first one I described : with a clear melody on front, with beautiful intervals of vivid space, and distinctness in loudness and quietness in the fingerpicking at the right spots, with crammed framed fingerpicking as spots of tension, creating an ever evolving creative sound full of spontaneity and invention, all within a warm controlled mood.
"The monkey room" is on some passages a bit more up tempo compared to other tracks, but strangely enough, at the same time, it has also something deeply meditative in its core.
The timing of any of the ideas and the changes always is perfect. This makes this album a perfect listen.
