Ethereal IV: Reviews and Quotes
Ethereal IV - Kevin Kastning, Sandor Szabo, Balazs Major (GREYDISC; US)
Kevin Kastning, Sandor Szabó's and Balázs Major's album Ethereal IV (Greydisc
GDR3560), released by Greydisc Records in the USA, could be called a Hungarian
publication.
Not only because two-thirds of the trio performing the compositions are
Hungarian, but also because the recordings were made in Kismaros during Kevin
Kastning's European tour in 2018. Officially released earlier this year, the
album, as its name suggests, is not without precedent. Although the recent album
cannot be considered an integral continuation of the previous release, "kinship"
is indisputable.
Featuring: Kevin Kastning – 30-string Contra-Alto guitar, Sándor Szabó –
electric guitars, Balázs Major – percussionist.
Regular readers do not need to be presented with similar sounds – dreamy and
surrealistic improvised – which open new portals to open new spiritual/spiritual
feelings for the listener. On this rare-atmosphere album, the trio released six
long music tracks that are as closely coexists as if they were twins, but it is
clear that what is happening here can only be the result of well-tried
improvisation.
Major's all-out punches during the six episodes are very varied, sometimes
consisting of hand drums, cymbals, and other lighter touches that seem to exist
directly below the surface. It acts as a guide track for guitarists. In that
eight or nine minutes, a lot can change, including a complete change of
direction, while the spirit of the piece remains intact. Kastning plays his
30-string Contra-Alto guitar, both as a conductor and as an accompaniment,
reaching the diversity of the panorama of acoustic sounds. Sándor Szabó brought
a number of instruments for recordings, mainly electric guitars, but he also
uses live sound processing and effects during recordings.
Listening to the album, we are most interested in films in which events seem to
take place independently of each other, in several strands. Then in the last
half of the film everything will come together and then you can see the
complexity of it all. Depending on the viewpoint, the repertoire runs on five or
six threads. The difference in judgment arises from the fact that the sixth and
final number of the album is a standalone story or the essence of the preceding
five recordings. We can put forward arguments for both. Judging, I think, will
be highly listener subjective. I, personally, vote for the essence.
I believe that a truly quality production can only be made if the performers
know each other well. This condition is also given in connection with
Ethereal IV, as the two great guitarists Kastning and Szabo have been
working together for several decades. Many meaningful and unusual albums have
already been released. Their current record is also a well-done piece. This
guitar album isn't for people who want honey-glazed, catchy guitar tunes. In
addition to the beauty of this music, it also has depth. It is a collection of
real compositions that move grey matter. This is required, but repays attention.
The trio's production fills in the definition of "guitar music differently" to
the maximum. In addition to the artistic side, it is definitely worth dedicating
a thought to the technical one. After all, the album can only be talked about at
a higher level in terms of sound. It's a great gift for all guitar music lovers,
but don't be surprised if you can't always recognize your favorite instrument.
Ethereal IV opens any number of new gates for students looking for new
perspectives.
-
Hangzasvilag Magazin (Sound World Magazine) HUNGARY
August 2021
Kevin Kastning, Sándor Szabó, Balázs Major – Ethereal IV (greydisc, 2021)
The fourth chapter of the Ethereal collaboration between guitarists Kevin
Kastning and Sandor Szabó extends to the trio format with the percussionist
Balázs Major and sticks to the same rule of the previous albums, to continuously
change the mix of their music and explore new boundaries. As an example, the
chpater three saw Kastning focused on piano and Szabó on orchestrations, while
now the improvisatory element in live context is predominant.
Focusing on predonimantly theme-less music, the music is inherited by a sense of
stillness, with Kastning and Szabó findings themselves in amazing dialogues,
like in Third Occurrence. Szabó places here and there a two notes motif that
eventually fades in soundscapes or propels Kastning phrasing over and below the
register of the other. But it’s Balázs Major the secret ingredient here, adding
a continuous beating on the cymbals, creating a never-shifting framework for the
rumblings of the two musicians.
Sandor Szabó, who mainly plays acoustic guitar, dwells into electric realm
playing a bariton electric and alternating abstract wanderings into atonal
soloing, to small, jagged themes appearing here and there. That is the perfect
fit for the minimal filling by Major‘s percussions and not surprisingly for the
evocative atonal improvisation of Kastning. Whether the American guitarist tends
to fill more actively the harmonic domain in the other environments, here shifts
more often to a broken and rich of a myriad of ideas comping for the others.
Fourth Occurrence is a radical example of this playing, a track where almost
nothing happens, but few Eastern-asia sounding sparse pitches played by electric
guitars and counterpointed by occasional harmonics and tapped chords, that only
in the coda become more and more aggressive. Similarly the gong-like opening of
Fifth Occurrence creates a ritual atmosphere of performative music, that
eventually leaves more to the visual (virtually visual) element than the
acoustic one. That contrasts with the more aggressive and thick dialogues in
First Occurrence: Kastning and Szabó dialogue with a scarcity of notes, yet they
are able to create a tension that leans over sudden explosions. Kastning is
suddenly heard soloing on a single string, which is very unusual, while Szabó
answers it with dobro-like sounds that adds intriguing and angular Eastern-music
intervals. Yet everything is so gradual and focused on maintaining the same
level of ebullient transience, that never ever happens.
Abstractness and minimalism are the thriving forces behind this trio that
demands calmness and nerves, promising wait and rewarding the listener with an
incredible meditation and insights over the improvisatory realm.
Kevin Kastning: 30-string Contra-Alto guitar
Sandor Szabo: Electric guitars
Balazs Major: Percussion
-
Music For Watermelons (ITALY)
August 2021
Kevin Kastning / Sándor Szabó / Balász Major — Ethereal IV
(Greydisc GDR 3560, 2021, CD / DL)
by Peter Thelen
Regular readers of Exposé should need no introduction to Kastning, Szabó, or
Major, we have reviewed many of their releases previously, including all of the
previous three in the Ethereal series, and although two of those didn’t
involve percussionist Balász Major, the theme is similar — dreamy and
surrealistic improvised sounds that open new sonic portals to provide the
listener with a quieting spiritual feeling. These three musicians have been
working together long enough for each to instinctively know the others’ next
move long before it happens. Within this sparse element, the trio has produced
six long tracks that at times are so tight they seem to be composed, and I
suspect to some degree that is true, but when one listens, it’s evident that in
what’s going down here, that much of it could only be the product of
well-rehearsed improvisation. Major’s percussion is varied throughout the six
cuts, sometimes consisting of hand drums, cymbals, and other lighter touches
that seem to exist just below the surface, operating as a guide track for the
guitarists to drive within, and often enough there is no discernible percussion
at all. The tracks are simply titled “First Occurrence,” “Second Occurrence,”
and so on out to the sixth, but across eight or nine minutes a lot can change,
including a complete change in direction, while still keeping the spirit of the
piece intact. Kastning plays his 30-string contra-alto guitar throughout, though
with that he can achieve a panoramic variety of acoustic sounds, both as lead
player and support. Szabó brings a number of instruments to the sessions —
baritone electric guitars mostly, but guzheng and esraj as well, plus live
processing and effects employed throughout the sessions. A listener can hear how
all of these unique elements fit together like a puzzle to produce any desired
feeling from one moment to the next as each piece proceeds; Ethereal IV
opens any number of new doors for listeners seeking alternate new horizons.
-- Exposé Magazine (US)
March 2021
Kevin
Kastning / Sándor Szabó / Balázs Major - Ethereal IV
A great gift for all
guitar music lovers. However, don’t excuse me if you don’t always recognize the
sound of your favorite instrument ... However, first things first.
American Kevin Kastning (born 1961) is not just an experienced and high-class
guitarist (while studying at Berklee, he also took private lessons from Pat
Metheny himself) and a composer, but also a talented and original guitar
designer. He invented instruments such as the 36-string contra-guitar, the
30-string contra-alto guitar, 14-string, 16-string and 17-string versions of the
guitars, and a host of other instruments in the guitar family. During his
already long career in music, Kastning led his own ensemble Kevin Kastning Unit,
worked with many musicians, including the famous British guitar luminary Mark
Wingfield, known to our readers for cooperation with MoonJune Records, but since
2006 he has been working especially a lot with Hungarian guitarist Sandor Szabo.
Sandor Szabo (born 1956) came to improvised music in the early 80s. He worked
mainly with an acoustic instrument, and carried away by studying non-European
musical systems, he mastered playing the Middle East oud and Chinese Guzhen. On
account of Szabo - more than 60 albums recorded in various countries and with
different partners. He is the author of two books on contemporary oriental music
and its links to Hungarian folklore. He did not neglect Sabo and electric
guitars of various types, having recorded nine albums of the Echolocation
series. Szabo's meeting with Kastning turned out to be happy for both musicians.
They toured together many times (both as a duet and as a threesome with the
addition of Hungarian percussionist Balász Major), recorded many albums, and
began the Ethereal series in 2018.
Then Kevin and Sandor finished their big European tour in May with concerts in
Hungary, and then in the concert hall of Kismaros they recorded the album
Ethereal IV presented today without preliminary preparation and any sound
overdubs. Kevin plays here on his 30-string double-necked contra-alto guitar,
Sandor operates on baritone electric guitars, and Balasz operates numerous and
varied percussion. I am not going to describe what I have heard, I will only say
that stylistically this music is, in my opinion, a version of avant-garde
ambient, and its emotional-meditational influence on the listener is extremely
strong, which is not always typical for “pure” ambient. In general, this must be
heard!
--
Jazz
Square Magazine (RUSSIA)
Leonid AUSKERN
January 2021
Ethereal IV - Kevin Kastning, Sandor Szabo, Balazs Major
I listened with enchantment to Ethereal IV thanks to greydisc. It is a
magical universe of uncharted territories.
Beyond the deep knowledge of guitars of the three musicians lies a shared
artistic sensibility that leads us to a magical universe of uncharted
territories. Listening to these 6 pieces infused with a fascinating spatial
fluidity you may think about a collection of Pictures at a Cosmic Exhibition.
Creativity and precision merge together in swirls of timeless sonorities.
- JazzWorldQuest
webzine (CANADA)
January 2021
Kevin Kastning / Sandor Szabo / Balazs Major - 2021 - "Ethereal IV"
(47:46; Greydisc)
*****+
This album was recorded at the Kismaros Concert Hall in Kismaros, Hungary, at
the end of Kastning and Szabo’s 2018 European tour. Here we find Kastning on his
30-string guitar, Szabo on electric, and they were joined by famed Hungarian
percussionist Balazs Major. I have been fortunate to hear quite a few of
Kastning’s album over the last few years, and his approach to a massive
multi-string instrument never ceases to amaze (he also often plays a 36-string
guitar). Here we find him setting a base which is even more experimental than
normal, and in Szabo he finds a perfect foil, while Major assists in taking the
music in different directions. Recorded in just one afternoon, here we find the
trio improvising and mixing musical threads from multiple different areas in
ways which should just not make sense, but somehow do when placed in their
hands. It is perhaps no surprise that the two guitarists can bounce and
understand each other so much, given they had just completed a tour together, as
they had learned to feel where the other musician was going and sometimes join
in that direction or move in another altogether to allow the other to come in
and follow them. At times reminiscent of some of the work by Markus Reuter, they
also allow non-Western ideas to come into their music and at times it can feel
quite Oriental, and others Asian, yet always with the feeling of experimentation
and allowing the fingers to fall where they will and for the mind to follow.
Kevin is the inventor of the 36-string Double Contraguitar, as well as the
30-string Contra Alto guitar featured on this album, and this provides him with
a wide expanse of possible note combinations, while Szabo is using many effects
pedals to create otherworldly sounds. Somehow, within all this, Major must find
his own path and perhaps it is not surprising that at times this means he
utilizes a large number of cymbals, while at others his role in the piece is
best portrayed by sitting back and waiting the right moment to make an impact.
Yet again this is a hugely successful outing by Kastning, whose albums always
move in interesting and unexpected directions. It may not be mainstream, but it
certainly is intriguing.
-
ProgressoR Magazine; October 2021
(Uzbekistan)
"I finally carved out some time to give your latest release a spin: further adventures at the outer limits of experimental sound. Enjoyed the exotic cymbalism and even thought I heard some udu in there. Keep pushing the envelope!"
- Will Clipman (US)
"Ethereal 4 is totally to my taste, I think I told you before that I
really like this band setup, with percussion and electric baritone guitar. This
album seems to be a little bit more “busy” than the other one that I already
know and love. In a great way busy I mean. All very tasteful songs, the
one that I find especially moved me is #3 ...and #5, ... or all of them....
really nice sound work and playing my friend!"
- Dieter Kaudel; K&K
Systems
(US/GERMANY)
© 2021 Greydisc Records / Suigeneria Music [BMI]
