Kevin Kastning :: Interchange One

KEVIN KASTNING & PAUL WERTICO - INTERCHANGE ONE

Kevin Kastning & Paul Wertico: Interchange One
(2026, download / streaming, --, greydisc records)
Kevin Kastning (baritone guitar, contrabaritone guitar) and Paul Wertico (drums, percussion, prepared drumset and talking drum) are releasing "Interchange One". It's their first collaboration.

"I was quite happy to be able to give the entire album a listening session.
Spontaneously composed, "Interchange One" is a beautiful sonic adventure.
It's remarkable how their sounds intertwine.

To be released later this month on Greydisc Records."

"I was very happy to hear the works before they were released! It's impressive to me, I really like it! A real duo, no one wants to outdo the other, a joint creation!
The pieces follow each other, the order is good! Brother, your playing is like an orchestra, I can only say great things about Paul, he is a brilliant musician,
I always admired whoever he played with. Thank you very much, it was a wonderful experience, congratulations to both of you. I hope this work will be a great success.
You are a very, very good couple. I hope the album will be a success, congratulations again!"

"Thank you for the recording. I listened to it that very night, and to be honest, I wasn’t prepared for this music. For me it felt like the first official visit of extraterrestrials to planet Earth, and being invited to the welcoming committee as an honor. Such a density and intensity of energy I had never heard before—demonstrating that they are not from this world.

After listening through the whole album, I couldn’t find the words; I really had to digest it and sleep on it. Today I listened to it again, and now the musical content and the sound already greeted me like an acquaintance. Behind the overwhelming energy and the sea of sounds, I could already hear more subtle details.

I think I’ll need to listen to it a few more times before I truly understand the “language” of the aliens. Both of you brought out some deeply hidden creature from within yourselves. Paul showed a side of himself I hadn’t known before, and although we already clarified on the first day we met that you came from some other star system, I had never heard this much energy from you—sometimes almost with a joyful force.

Congratulations to both of you!"

"Sounds much better with headphones, and a lot more balanced between instruments than it seemed at first, though the guitar does get drowned out a fair bit, depending on the track. Without much (any?) reverb it's such a different sound than your other stuff.
Really good and amazing playing all around. Paul is astonishing, and you're sounding better than ever. I especially like Adjacent Flowing Streams VI - maybe it's got more space in it?"

- DS (US)

Kevin Kastning & Paul Wertico - 2026 - "Interchange One"
(4 out of 5 stars)

(42:51; Greydisc)

"This is the first collaboration between Kevin and drummer extraordinaire Paul Wertico who will always be celebrated for being a long-time member of the Pat Metheny Group with whom he won seven Grammy Awards. Here Kevin provides 30-string Contra-Baritone guitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar, 26-string Double Sub-Contraguitar, 24-string Double Sub-Contraguitar and Paul acoustic drums and cymbals (featuring the Wertico Ride), prepared drumset and talking drum. Wertico has appeared on hundreds of recordings, is Associate Professor of Jazz & Contemporary Music Studies at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, and conducts drum clinics worldwide, as well as releasing numerous critically acclaimed recordings, and also authored the groundbreaking drum instructional book, ‘Turn The Beat Around’. On this collaboration he often brings a very busy approach, while Kevin is more laid back, and the two styles are very contrasting in nature. It works best when Kevin is more upbeat, but when he is slowing down in styles, I find that to my ears Paul is not reacting in the same manner, so although this does feel like a collaboration as opposed to a clashing of performers, it is not as stable or complete as most of Kevin’s recordings. Given that Paul worked with Metheny for nearly two decades I did have very high expectations, but for me this release is interesting as opposed to essential. It is fascinating of course but is not one to which I would suggest for a newcomer to Kevin’s style, and of the four albums he has already released this year, this was the one I found most difficult to get inside."

- Progressor *Kevin Kastning & Paul Wertico - 2026 - "Interchange One"
(4 out of 5 stars)

(42:51; Greydisc)

"This is the first collaboration between Kevin and drummer extraordinaire Paul Wertico who will always be celebrated for being a long-time member of the Pat Metheny Group with whom he won seven Grammy Awards. Here Kevin provides 30-string Contra-Baritone guitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar, 26-string Double Sub-Contraguitar, 24-string Double Sub-Contraguitar and Paul acoustic drums and cymbals (featuring the Wertico Ride), prepared drumset and talking drum. Wertico has appeared on hundreds of recordings, is Associate Professor of Jazz & Contemporary Music Studies at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, and conducts drum clinics worldwide, as well as releasing numerous critically acclaimed recordings, and also authored the groundbreaking drum instructional book, ‘Turn The Beat Around’.

On this collaboration he often brings a very busy approach, while Kevin is more laid back, and the two styles are very contrasting in nature. It works best when Kevin is more upbeat, but when he is slowing down in styles, I find that to my ears Paul is not reacting in the same manner, so although this does feel like a collaboration as opposed to a clashing of performers, it is not as stable or complete as most of Kevin’s recordings. Given that Paul worked with Metheny for nearly two decades I did have very high expectations, but for me this release is interesting as opposed to essential. It is fascinating of course but is not one to which I would suggest for a newcomer to Kevin’s style, and of the four albums he has already released this year, this was the one I found most difficult to get inside."

- Progressor (Uzbekistan)
March 2026

"Kevin Kastning is the American musician who plays guitars with 24, 26, and even up to 30 strings—or more! Once or twice a year, he releases an album in a duo format with another musician. For this project, he invited Chicago-based drummer Paul Wertico to join him. Wertico plays acoustic drums, cymbals, prepared drums, and the East African talking drum (or *tama*). His credits include, among others, a stint with the Pat Metheny Group from 1983 to 2001.

Their album, *Interchange One*, is a seven-part suite in which percussion and guitars take turns playing both melodic and rhythmic roles. There are no grand lyrical flights of fancy here, but rather driving rhythms, unexpected melodies, and a remarkable capacity to surprise us.

I will feature the first track from this album on the broadcast airing March 31, 2026."

Label: Greydisc, GDR3604 (2026) – Release date: March 31, 2026.

"I finally carved out time on a Saturday to flow adjacently to your and Paul's streams. You were true in describing the soundscape as dense an abstract! I enjoyed it in the same way I enjoy Jackson Pollock's painting.

Paul's sheer technical brilliance is off the charts, of course; and (somewhat to my surprise) you actually play in a more groove-oriented way than usual, which grounds his arrhythmic and polyphonic explorations in a good way; particularly in the register of the sub-contra, which is pretty marrow-melting.

Sounds like you two had tons of fun fun doing this!"

- Will Clipman (percussionist)
USA

Kevin Kastning & Paul Wertico: “Interchange One” Digital and CD 31st March 2026 Greydisc Records. USA Jazz band.

"When two brilliant musicians meet up, they create amazing music that last for decades. Resulting into two albums in the making such creativity has no limit with them. This first one starts with the imaginary jazz music only can bring in the music universe.
While they are may instruments available, the most notable being the neck, ( like a guitar but with two sides you play with both hands taping). Kevin Kastning, (Alex de Grassi, Michael Manring, Mark
Wingfield, Carl Clements, Sandor Szabo, and many others) has decided a seventh string wasn’t enough so he created his own double neck one with 36 strings.
Have a taste:

The instrument is taking the guitar part with the neck one, making it the biggest guitar ever made for a musician. He can then compose many diverse sound and arrangements, coming from Berklee College Music in Boston. He has learnt all the possibilities music sound can create.

Contacted through the net, Paul Wertico (Pat Metheny Group, David Bowie, Kurt Elling, and Paul Winter, and many others), teaching in Boston. Joined this crazy project to add his craft to the genius guitar music he felt matching perfectly his own creativity and sound.

Both have released albums on their own and the ideas that emerge from those creative minds exploded into more mind blowing songs.

It’s naturally two albums has been composed, the second one will come this summer and you can awaits for more music to expand the sound.

The covers are just as the music, calling you into an imaginary world.

A must-have masterpiece for the ears 100/100."

"Interchange One is on another level. The playing is just off the planet and on another level of artistry, originality and
expression The symbiosis of Kevin and Paul is incredible."

Kevin Kastning / Paul Wertico — Interchange One
(Greydisc GDR3605, 2026, CD / DL)

Few guitarists have as unique a style as Kevin Kastning, and certainly part of that is because he’s playing a collection of unique guitars of his own design that eschew most standard guitar techniques. In this review we present a couple of solo recordings (Codex III, Codex IV), plus a couple of excellent collaborations, one with trumpeter Phil Grenadier (Unreal City), and another with drummer Paul Wertico (Interchange One).

Paul Wertico is a magnificent drummer, best known for his long tenure with the Pat Metheny Group (beginning in 1984 with First Circle), though I had the pleasure seeing him live with the Polish trio SBB, one of the best sets I’ve ever witnessed. Interchange One has a completely different feel from Unreal City, perhaps darker and more intense, a contributing factor may be because there is no melodic solo instrument (other than what Kastning can produce on his array of guitars: 30-string contra-baritone, 30-string double contra, and 24- and 26-string double sub-contra), which are all operating primarily in the low registers, while Wertico plays a standard drum kit, prepared drum kit, talking drum, and an array of cymbals and percussives. The overall effect is a wild and thunderous bottom-end heavy adventure that at times seems to be scored, at other times completely improvised. There are seven tracks, “Adjacent Flowing Streams I – VII,” though they all tend to flow together like one long continuous suite, one might not even notice when you move from one track to the next, only the mood changes with the transition, but the instrumentation is the same. I’m not familiar with all of Kastning’s endeavors going back to the very beginning, but Interchange One is the first time I’ve heard him in a duo setting with a drummer or percussionist, and it’s really a different feeling.

New Music from Paul Wertico

"Nearly thirty years ago, on May 27, 1997, Knitting Factory Works released The Sign of the Four, a fearless free-improvisation recording featuring Paul Wertico, Pat Metheny, Derek Bailey, and Gregg Bendian. Now, Grammy-winning drummer, and longtime former Pat Metheny Group member, Paul Wertico continues that adventurous spirit with collaborator Kevin Kastning on Interchange One.

On the album, Kastning’s 24-, 26-, and 30-string Double and Sub-Contraguitars create an otherworldly sonic landscape alongside Wertico’s acoustic and talking drums. Already earning praise from international outlets like Progressor Magazine and Radio Air Libre, the seven-part suite feels like a modern continuation of the experimental path Wertico has explored throughout his career.

What makes the project especially fascinating is how it was created. Living nearly a thousand miles apart in Chicago and Maine, Wertico and Kastning never recorded together in person. One musician would improvise a track, while the other responded with a blind, first-take overdub, completely unedited and without hearing the original track beforehand. The result is an intuitive, deeply connected musical conversation that somehow feels both spontaneous and remarkably unified.

Interchange One is out now on Kastning’s Greydisc Records. Interchange Two is scheduled for release in August."

- Contemporary Jazz magazine
August 2026