Kevin Kastning :: The WNYC Sessions

The WNYC Sessions: Reviews and Quotes

"Congrats! The WNYC Sessions sound perfect. What a challenge and "risky business" to record live and then being so good that releasing the recording as an album is perfect. A total major accomplishment not many artists cannot repeat.
KUDOS to you both!!"

- Monique Grimme
CEO; Bongo Boy Records (US)

Kevin Kastning / Mark Wingfield — The WNYC Sessions
(Greydisc GDR3593, 2025, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-07-01

"As you might surmise from the title, The WNYC Sessions is a radio broadcast, recorded August 18, 2018, and like nearly all of the recordings by Kastning and his collaborators, the pieces here seem to be composed in the moment, here featuring Mark Wingfield playing electric guitar and Kevin Kastning playing a custom 17-string hybrid classical guitar (acoustic), and sometimes (as on the nine-minute “Gilder-77,” “1071-S,” or “Gansevoort-99”) piano. The seven pieces wander through mysterious caverns with a powerful dreamlike quality, seemingly in a sea of reverb, constantly changing and switching back, with never a repeated idea. The two protagonists already have about a dozen recordings together, so they are well versed in the way their spirits travel and can most easily navigate through each others’ ideas as they create these sonic tapestries together. Regardless of the piece, it’s Wingfield who seems to drive the melodies, his strong effected leads flowing in and out of Kastning’s textural backdrops, whether it be 17 strings or piano, he approaches both instruments in a similar way, although he generally handles the bass component, as evidenced on the opener “Oculus-50.” A listener might find themselves drifting through space on many of these pieces, as there is really no cadence per se, they speed up and slow down at will, sometimes at the same time, the two players bouncing off one another as they proceed through a colorful forest of random ideas put to sound. One never knows what’s coming around the next corner, because there really are no corners to speak of, only a constant flow of ideas in a subtly beautiful trajectory. One can’t even begin to describe the shapes, forms and colorations of this constant motion of sonic alchemy, because everything is fleeting; by the time anyone notices it, it’s already gone and onto another idea, leaving only a memory and a feeling that existed for a fragment of time. The WNYC Sessions presents two musical geniuses exploring unknown worlds together."

- Exposé Magazine (US)
July 2025

KEVIN KASTNING & MARK WINGFIELD - THE WNYC SESSIONS

Kevin Kastning & Mark Wingfield: The WNYC Sessions
(2025, cd, USA, greydisc)

"Guitarist, composer and instrument-designer Kevin Kastning is best-known for playing multi-stringed guitars. On "The WNYC Sessions", Kevin played a 17-string hybrid classical guitar.
Add fellow guitarist, composer and sound-innovater Mark Wingfield, and you know you're in for an adventure.

The brand-new "The WNYC Sessions" got recorded live at the WNYC radio studios in New York City for a broadcast.
Seven pieces of music.
Seven meditative soundscapes.

Even without knowing that "The WNYC Sessions" is the duo's fifth release, it's obvious that Kevin Kastning and Mark Wingfield have performed and recorded together on various occasions.
Great interplay, but both players also get the necessary space to improvise.

The result is beautiful."

- United Mutations (US)
July 2025

Kevin Kastning & Mark Wingfield - 2025 - "The WNYC Sessions"

(53:06; Greydisc)
*****+

This is the 11th release from Kevin and Mark and is taken from a session they undertook in New York for an WNYC broadcast. Given they have played and recorded together so much, there is a real knowledge from each other as to what is possible and also what may happen when the music is taken down a particular path. Wingfield is highly regarded for the many albums where he has been called upon to provide electric guitar in an improvisational format, while continues invent and then master different guitar-based instruments, here playing a 17-string Hybrid Classical guitar (as well as switching to piano for some, which is an unusual step for him). Mark often takes the melodic lead, wringing strange, elongated sounds from his guitar (reminiscent at times of Holdsworth), while Kevin takes us on a very different journey, plucking chords and bass notes in a sonic manner which is only possible due to the instrument he curated. It is almost as if two very different worlds are colliding in real time, but instead of bouncing off each other they are somehow melding to create something very different, like the centre of a Venn diagram. When Kevin switches to piano it is again delicate, an extension of what he achieves on his multi-stringed instruments, and sometimes he is followed closely by Mark while at others they again take very different paths indeed. Yet another delight for fans of the avant garde and different, as it is often by taking the path less travelled that we come across real beauty.

- Progressor Magazine (UZBEKISTAN)
October 2025

"This is the 11th collaborative album from the duo Kevin Kastning and Mark Wingfield. The former is known for his multi-stringed guitars: here, he plays a 17-string Hybrid Classical guitar and piano. In recent years, he has released numerous albums featuring guitar duos; we've had the opportunity to present several of them to you. As for the latter, whose work we have also previously featured, he plays electric guitar and incorporates various sound effects.

They came together to share their innovative musical vision. The album "The WNYC Sessions" is a testament to this. It was recorded live at the New York radio station WNYC in August 2018. The duets also include space for solos, while the guitars are also used as percussion instruments. Many innovations, therefore, and sounds resulting from their musical explorations that you won't hear anywhere else.

I will be playing the first track from this album on the show on August 12, 2025."
- Radio Air Libre (BELGIUM)