One of the more prolific of today’s guitarist is Gordon Grdina. It seems that as soon as I’ve reviewed one of his albums, one or two new ones pop out. How do we keep up with this guy? Here are two completely divergent, yet similarly created releases.
Grdina focuses on the oud as he teams with left of center guitarist Marc Rebotj, Tim Gerwing and Liam MacDonald on Middle Eastern, earthy vocalist and flutist Emad Armoush, Tommy Babin/b, Kenton Loewen/dr, Francois Houle/cl, Christopher Kelly/sax, JP Crter/tp and violinists Josh and Jesse Zubot. The five songs are richly exotic caravans, melding chords in Asia Minor as on the fragrant “Longa Nahawand” and the festive “Dulub” which features the folksy and scratchy violins taking you to mountainous villages. Armoush is bold on the big beat of “Sala Min Shaaraha A-Thahab” and goes Rembetika on the tavern’d “Lama Bada Yatathanna” with Grdina’s folksy acoustic and Ribot’s electric tones calling in the sounds of the past and future generations.
Grdina goes it all alone on electric/midi guitar, dobro, classical-acoustic guitar and oud as he interprets the compositions of Tim Berne. He creates a tapestry of sounds and moods with the acoustic/electric mix, edgy with effects on “Oddly Enough” , grungy with dark spaces for the folksy Middle Eastern “Enord Krad” and plodding elliptically during “Lost In Redding”. Most intimate is the acoustic “Pliant Squids” where Grdina takes you to the restful villages of shepherds. Traditional teamed with technical tones.