Steffen Basho Junghans

Intoxicating musical fractal patterns articulated by six- and 12-string steel guitar solos via dense repetitions and chord patterns. Some parts of the album have a stoic rhythmic quality, whereas other parts are looser and allow for subtle changes. Waters in Azure is broken down into four distinct compositions, two of which, "Waters" and "ONE No 1," are long pieces split into three movements each while the remaining "Inside the Rain" and "Azure" are more heavily structured pieces. Junghans engages a single finger plucking technique to construct his sound patterns, reminiscent of the music of Steve Reich, but he achieves solo what takes Reich several musicians to accomplish. "Azure" by far is the most trance-like piece on this CD, with the plucking at its most stoic and focussed, sounding like a musical mantra. This album is brilliant, evoking a wealth of textural tessellations from a single guitar. Steffen Basho Junghans deserves a place alongside Loren MazzaCane Connors and John Fahey for his ability to evoke the most from the least, spinning gold from steel strings.