Contemporary Violin by Rupert Guenther - amplified soundscapes for solo violin

Contemporary Violin" is my 16th album of my own works. It was one of 5 new albums of my improvisations commissioned and recorded by ABC Classic FM in the Iwaki Auditorium at Southbank in Melbourne in the autumn of 2007. Using many extended playing techniques on a mostly amplified violin gave me the freedom to paint in sounds, and to create the atmosphere I could sense for each work in the album. It is one of my favourite albums of soundscapes I have made, alluding as it does to themes of nature, the cosmos and ancient history - all things I love and feel a deep connection with. I wanted to make a body of work to mark what violin playing could sound like going forward. I tried to avoid using learned playing techniques from other contemporary violin works and instead just explore, discover and record the works using my own eclectic collection of sounds which I feel an affinity with. I’m using an early Spur Violins semi-acoustic prototype plugged into a small Yamaha 250W powered monitor which allows me to have a beautiful acoustic violin sound but amplified enough for some of the very quiet techniques to be heard in a much larger representation than they would have been, had they been played purely acoustically. It was, as with all the ABC recordings that month, recorded all in one take, no re-takes, overdubs or edits. Another collection of Rupert Guenther inspired original improvisations.

Composer-violinist Rupert Guenther's soulful violin tones in concerts of magical extended improvisations take us on a journey through the ancient world, to events in history, personal life-stories and self-reflection, all the way to the stars and the outer cosmos.

rupertguenther.com
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