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Erhard Hirt / Hans Tammen / Nick Didkovsky — Extended Guitar Trio - Münster 02 Okt 24
(Bandcamp Acheulian Handaxe Records no#, 2025, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-05-12

Extended Guitar Trio - Münster 02 Okt 24 Cover art

Extended techniques are like when you thread drumsticks between the strings of your guitar and play them with a hammer, or open the top of a grand piano and play the strings with a wire brush drill, and just about any other unconventional method of eliciting sound out of an otherwise conventional instrument. Adding electronics into the equation and the results are nearly limitless. The three protagonists of the Extended Guitar Trio are German expat Hans Tammen (electronics, synth, guitar), now resident in New York, German jazz and improvising musician Erhard Hirt, and NYC-based guitarist and improviser Nick Didkovsky, a name that should be well known to Exposé readers through his involvement with Doctor Nerve, Bone, Fred Frith String Quartet, Chord, and many other endeavors we have covered through the years. They have been playing together for many years, but this live set in Munster from October 2024 is apparently the first time the trio has recorded something that found its way to release. There are four tracks here, but the fourth one is so short (and quiet) it doesn’t really count; the first three offer a declaration, of sorts, as to what can be done by three guitarists improvising using extended techniques and electronics, and as you might well imagine, it gets pretty strange and weird at times — in fact pretty much all of the time. The electronic elements are recognizable as such, as well as the guitar strings and whatever is actuating them, often sort of a glissando effect, other times a pick or some other implement striking them, and I wouldn’t rule out those drumsticks — something I saw Fred Frith do in a live setting once — but then there are all sorts of percussive sounds, grunts, scratching, bizarre chattering noises, and just about anything else imaginable — you’ll hear it here somewhere. The first two tracks (“Futuristic Aletopelta” and “Yielding Time”) are very long, like an LP side each, while the third, “Voltaic Xenoposeidon,” is just a little over six minutes. What is evident a few minutes into this, is that it is always interesting, even captivating, and one never knows what’s going to happen next (even after a half dozen or more spins, I’m still in wonderment), and it’s relatively gentle on the ears, rarely abrasive or disruptive, but one should set their expectations before jumping in head first. This is fragmentary and strange, probably not like any other music that one is likely to encounter unless you go out looking for it. Will Hirt, Tammen, and Didkovsky return with a second helping? Let’s hope so.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Hans Tammen, Nick Didkovsky, Erhard Hirt

More info
http://handaxe.bandcamp.com/album/extended-guitar-trio

 

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