Ethereal V: Reviews and Quotes
Ethereal V
Kevin Kastning, Sándor Szabó, Balázs Major
"Travelling through the worlds of jazz, new age, ambient, and modern classical
this fifth album in Kevin Kastning’s Ethereal series is filled with lush
orchestrations and unusual guitar voicings. Over the years Kastning has works
with various solo and chamber group instrumentations and recorded a variety of
albums with guitarist Alex de Grassi, bassist Michael Manring, and others. Also,
Kastning has collaborated with Alistair Hay of Emerald Guitars inventing and
building the 36-string Double Contraguitar. This double neck instrument consists
of two 18-string Contraguitars used in two different tunings. It provides an
extended range and an unusual harmonic palette and has become one of Kastning's
main instruments for both concerts and recordings.
Otherworld, Kevin's 2015 solo album, was the No.1 album in the world on the
iTunes Classical charts in September 2015. As a revered guitarist and celebrated
acoustic guitar wizard Kastning continues expanding as a guitar phenomenon.
Ethereal V is a relaxing ambient release that intrigues the senses with its
non-pattern based passages. It is a perfect album for juicing one’s creativity
as it goes to unusual places in a very pleasurable fashion. There are moments
that remind me of Frippertronics, and others that delve into the mysterious side
dipping a tow into the Avant Garde. The combination of his special acoustic
guitar and elongated rolling tones opens this music into a free form world that
takes one to alternate universes."
-
Mediaversal (US)
January 2022
Kevin Kastning, Balazs Major, Sándor Szabó: Ethereal V (Greydisc Records, 2022)
Curiously, five pieces make up Ethereal V, "it seems obvious", the first of them
of long duration with more than 21 minutes and the rest of medium extension.
This Ethereal series is preceded by four albums numbered from I to IV. We find
opening Ethereal V, "First Ethereal": play of shadows and lights of romantic
development and ghostly sounds whose minimalist structures give it an air of
chamber orchestration, not exempt from echoes and intimate reverberations that
seem to come from a parallel world.
"Second Etherea": with characteristics related to the first of the chapters of
this conceptual work but focusing more on the sound and ethereal drama, as light
as the flight of a veil.
"Third Etherea" and "Fourth Ethereal": of weightless atmospheres, of vaporous
space travel. The mysterious and calm tension of the intangible and abstract
realities; orchestra of ambient gothic spirits and some psychological fear.
"Fifth Ethereal": as a journey to the center of the brain, adventurous
syncopated textures of experimentation and improvisation in the memory of Ralph
Towner.
-
El Escribe de Jazz (SPAIN)
April 2022
Ethereal V; Kevin Kastning; 2022 Greydisc
When the standard guitar has limited his musical expression, Kevin Kastning has invented his own instruments to extend the pitch range of the guitar. For Ethereal V, he plays the 15-string and 17-string Hybrid Extended Classical guitar accompanied by percussionist Balazs Major with orchestrations from Sandor Szabo. This is the fifth chapter of Kevin’s Ethereal series and it furthers their expression of galactic improvisation. At times it is like a mystery movie soundtrack, an introspective piece that is suitable for meditation.
- O's Place
Jazz Magazine (US)
April 2022
© 2022 Greydisc Records / Suigeneria Music [BMI]
