TASSOS SPILIOTOPOULOS – Anamnesis: Compositions For Electric Guitar

Anelia 2025

TASSOS SPILIOTOPOULOS –
Anamnesis:
Compositions For Electric Guitar

Reassessing his past, Stockholm master of cold strings defrost a few artifacts of yore and finds fresh facets of familiar lore.

Guitarists are a strange breed: first, they strum a tune to flesh it out and sophisticate, and then, somewhere further down the line, they decide to strip it down to see whether the original idea still sticks after it went through a full-ensemble arrangement. Surprisingly, such experiments more often than not work, and this Athenian knew he could safely approach best moments from his previous efforts – from solo albums such as "In The North" and from one he recorded as part of the S.E.V. trio – by relying on melodic strength of the numbers on offer and enhancing their emotional levels via a single-instrument performance of each. And while the pieces that form “Anamnesis” are said to be written for electric delivery, they sound almost completely unplugged when cleansed of effects and given a minimal backdrop of percussive groove and synthetic shimmer.

Yet if the flamenco-tinctured “Feral Dance” seems to set the scene through its aural poetry, Spiliotopoulos’ exquisite flurries of notes feel muscular enough to render his jazz motifs riveting even for those who usually fail to follow an improv, and with the album’s seven tracks barely crossing a half-hour barrier, loving this is easy. More so, not loving Tassos’ introspective trips inside himself on cuts like “Downfall Monologue” is nigh on impossible, especially knowing he’s playing everything here, and hearing that he’s not going for chamber sterility which “Wait For Dusk” or “Ballad For A New World” hint at – something the rather jovial “Across The Line” demonstrates with a lot of grace and gusto. And then there’s “Emerald Blues” to fathom the bottom-end of the artist’s writing and show how redundant filigreed details may be in the face of fierce, albeit restrained, sentiment, whereas “Gemini” flutters merrily, exposing the fascinating nuances of guitar caress.

It’s this wide spectrum of methods and gamut of passion that make Tassos Spiliotopoulos’ oeuvre so alluring, and whether he send a charge in the heart of his tune or distils it to essentials, the results are stunning.

*****

February 4, 2025

Category(s): Reviews
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