Sándor Szabó

Liner notes: Ethereal I.

"Though I am internationally known as an acoustic guitarist, I was always attracted by the electric guitar as a possibility for playing new music with a new sound. As such, I never wanted to employ the electric guitar based on current trends or fashion; yet I saw endless possibilities for electric guitar. In 1999, I released Echolocation, my first electric guitar album. Using the most advanced digital effect processing technology at that time, I created music and sounds that had never been heard. The reception was not significant, because that music could not be categorized or associated with existing genres or styles at that time. Since then, digital signal processing moved forward, as did new electric guitar-based music. I decided to continue my original concept on an even higher level; both musically and in sound. In this duo project, my partner is Kevin Kastning, who is a real pathfinder in reinventing the acoustic guitar in the music he plays.  Ethereal I is our first electric/acoustic album, and is also the first in a new series in this direction.  For this project, I used electric guitars and complex live and studio effect processing. Every note of the music was born of vibration of strings which I processed further in many ways. The sound itself became the equal of the music, expressing elements in the stereo field. You can hear motions of notes in various extended spaces, in different space layers which together create perspective in the sound-space, such as a painting. There are so many things happening in this album; both in music and sound. We invite you to be part of this entirely new sound and music reality."