anthony guerra image: michael rodgers









joel stern image:michael rodgers















 




Reviews of Stern / Guerra's 'Stitch' (004) Guerras luminous drones loop through much of the music, refracted at times into recurrent sub-Frippertronics. Stern wafts clouds of interference into this radiant atmosphere, agitated particles of noise and found sound that either hang around like dust or cling together in a continuum that inverts the guitars serenity. Julien Crowley - THE WIRE, September 2003 I could easily see myself disappearing in the smoky trails of these glacial avant-garde improvisations for hours, and when the performers involved approach the genre with this sort of inventiveness and excitement, I'll be happy just sitting where I am right now, staring at nothing and everything at the same time. Mats Gustafsson - The Broken Face Stitch is an intricately constructed, deftly sustained and pervasively atmospheric exercise. Stewart Lee - Sunday Times, London If there are barriers between experimental electronica and free improvisation, this lot are breaking them down. Peter Marsh - BBC-experimental review "Stitch" is a marvelous recording, a beguiling approach to improvised music that deserves a wide hearing. Brian Olewnik - http://www.bagatellen.com Even in its most abstract, electronics-driven moments, the music keeps a door open on melody and harmony. The closing 19-minute track provides the disc,s highlight. Here the guitar becomes highly tonal, first slowly laying down a post-rockish motif and later reappearing in a sped-up incarnation as the gritty electronic textures pulls it underwater. Francois Couture - All Music Guide The best piece of the untitled lot is the final, ninth, piece, which takes up almost a quarter of the entire CD. Starting with picking strings, it slowly evolves in to laptop processed guitar playing, almost like a sweet lullaby. Frans deWard - Vital Stitch, the latest release by Australian/(sometimes) UK artists Joel Stern and Anthony Guerra is a dense, pretty, dare it be said, almost tuneful release for Impermanent Recordings (see Peter Blamey's Salted Felt and Stasis Duo's Hammer & Tongs). Stitch is rewarding texturally but even more intriguing structurally because it is not about cohesion, more about fragments and the transitions between them. It seems to be made of shards, torn sections with ragged edges, some tacked loosely together, some sutured so tightly the sonic fabric puckers, the tensions tangible. Gail Priest - Realtime
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