Il progetto prende il nome dal Mayfield Depot, una stazione abbandonata di Manchester dove il sestetto ha provato e scritto il disco, ispirato dal luogo stesso. Ampia la gamma dei timbri: dalle percussioni di Camille Emaille alle ance di Gianni Gebbia, dalle Ondes Martenot di Cécile Lartigau al piano preparato di Heiner Goebbels, con Nicolas Perrin a chitarra ed elettronica e Willi Bopp ad occuparsi del sound design. In uno studio creato da Luc Ferrari apposta per la musica elettroacustica i musicisti hanno improvvisato 95 (!) tracce, che poi Bopp ha selezionato e assemblato creando da queste un collage. Il risultato è un flusso ininterrotto suddiviso in sedici tracce: profondo, misterioso, denso, astratto e organico, sommesso e potente come un'elegia dopo una catastrofe.

Three electric guitarists gleefully celebrate the possibilities of their instrument, with an emphasis on spontaneous improvisation. It's noisy and challenging for sure, but Ere Guitar can't be faulted for its invention, nor the unfettered joy the trio get from music-making.

In 2016, in the course of two days, guitarist Elliott Sharp recorded Err Guitar, on which he was joined by Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot. They joined forces to create an album of astonishing beauty and boasting a remarkably broad array of sonic interactions. Six years later, on a single day in July, Sharp assembled another guitar trio but this time with Sally Gates and Tashi Dorji. While its title connotes a prequel of sorts, Ere Guitar is more like an updated manifesto, a more free-wheeling foray deep into the interstitial abstractions these three veteran musicians of disparate musical languages bring to every technologically enhanced gesture.

Throughout repeated auditions, I kept remembering Art Tatum. That supremely gifted pianist could also exhaust, a veritable fountain of ideas pouring forth at every twist and turn. Even the simplest shades of interaction, like the beautifully gliding and sliding cyclic repetitions opening “Surveying the Damage” worry, jostle, and besmirch each other before melding, and yet, the gradual combination eliminates all simplicity and facile comprehension. Overlapping tones converge and multiply until Gates, who Sharp informs me is usually in the left channel, engages in high-register dialogue with the rest. Those opening moments comprise a bit of an anomaly, as much of the music digs in its heels with pointillistic resolve. They can take initially languorous forms, as on Sharp’s “Drill Core,” one of only two Sharp compositions on offer her, or they can bustle about with gritty vengeance, as “Check Some” illustrates or as kicks off the proceedings in high gear on “Wildlife.” Sounds rasp, rattle, and ping-pong about the doubtlessly effect-augmented space, Dorji quietly meditative in the right channel and Sharp sliding, possibly bowing but certainly stretching the guitar’s possibilities centerstage.

Corresponding to the plethora of notes and knotty timbres present throughout, every emotion is on tap. Several pieces contain proverbial multitudes, like the rather astonishing “The Moment,” which moves from a percussive three-part invention toward something more fluid or “Drill Core,” the other Sharp composition, whose dynamic increase initial minor feel drives forward through a series of varied arcs whose undersides find Dorji sounding for all the world like a gong, a stunning timbral feat. The stand-out tracks are the ones that really dig into a sound, or a pitch range, and the exquisitely crafted “Unfinished Conversation” does both. Gates squeezes out the first pitch as from a tube of glue, a gesture from which all else follows. Sharp centerstage and Dorji off to the right serve as a sort of chorus commenting on each event, the amen corner to what begins as a sermon but increases to a collective improvisation centering around a series of pitches coalescing to form around a mode rather than inhabiting it. That precision of vagueness, the sparse unpredictability of events in distorted but languid unfolding, renders the track the luminously beautiful vignette it is. It’s all extremely clear, despite heavy reverb and a wide soundstage. The entire album is recorded like that, so that all is crystal-clear, whatever effects are in play. This trio update, part sequel and part innovation, is a genre-defying and challenging but certainly rewarding listening experience.

https://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD88/PoD88MoreMoments5.html

THE extraordinarily unified guitar sounds of US virtuoso Elliott Sharp, New Zealander Sally Gates and Tashi Dorji from Bhutan span the cosmos.

“Improvisation as a practice,” says Dorji, much influenced by Sheffield guitarist Derek Bailey, “is always shifting, becoming and disappearing.” Never the same twice — and no conglomeration of sounds could illustrate that adage more than those found on this record.

The sound is elemental. Hear closely the track called Array — it could be an electric storm, or it could be a palaver of concerned individuals discussing the climate crisis, as in Addressing the Convention. Like the mystery of sound, it is anything the listeners want it to be.

Impossible for me to separate its creators’ soundscapes, this is truly a small ensemble of fused artistry, electric to its core. A trio of now-times troubadours giving their sounds to their listeners as words on a page. Hearkening is knowing.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/jazz-albums-chris-searle-october-14-2024

Jury Crossover Productions

»Sarahbanda«. Sarah Willis, Yunet Lombida, Aylín Pino, Jorge Aragón a.o. (Alpha)
Giovanni Guidi: A New Day (ECM)
Elliott Sharp, Sally Gates, Tashi Dorji: Ere Guitar (Intakt)
Maria Baptist: Hopes & Fears (Urban Birds Artists)
Morpheus Trance: In Trance We Trust (Double Moon)
David Orlowsky, Danile Stelter, Tommy Baldu, Lillo Scrimali: Petrichor (Warner)
Theresa Kronthaler, Kalle Kalima, Oliver Potratz: Some Call Him Johnny Grey (BMC)
Lucian Ban, Mat Maneri: Transylvanian Dance (ECM)
Florian Willeitner, Ivan Turkalj, Alexander Wienand: What the Fugue (ACT)

https://www.schallplattenkritik.de/en/quarterly-critics-choice/long-list/long-list-42024

Kann sich noch jemand an das Album Guitar Oblique mit Elliott Sharp, Vernon Reid und David Torn aus guten alten Knitting-Factory-Zeiten erinnern? Oder an den mit Sharp, Marc Ribot und Mary Halvorson eingespielten Summit Err Guitar? Ere Guitar scheint, wenn auch nicht ganz so prominent besetzt, eine Art Fortsetzung dieser Gitarren-gipfel zu bilden. Gemeinsam mit der neuseeländischen Avant-Rock-Harpyie Sally Gates und dem bhutanesischen Experimentalkünstler Tashi Dorji entfesselt Sharp eine Gi-tarrenorgie, deren obertonrei-cher Glocken-Sound teilweise an die freien Improvisationen von Sonic Youth erinnert.
Sharp, Gates und Dorji rufen uns engagiert in Erinnerung, dass elektrische Gitarren laut, schrill und energetisch klingen können oder besser sollen. Viel wirklich Neues hat das Album freilich nicht zu bieten, aber wie sollte das auch immer gehen? Ere Guitar ist vielmehr eine ebenso kraftvolle wie poetische Hommage an die Möglichkeiten der elektrischen Gitarre als solche, die lustvoll zwischen Utopie und Dystopie changiert und das Erlebnis über das Konzept stellt.

Elliott Sharp/Sally Gates/Tashi Dorji
Ere Guitar
Intakt CD/DL
This inter-generational guitar summit is a sequel to 2017's Err Guitar, where Downtown stalwart Elliott Sharp was joined by Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot. Amped up and freely improvised, Ere Guitar is a different beast to its predecessor. Leader of jazz metal group Titan To Tachyons, Sally Gates is active in New York's improvised music community.
Her abstracted shredding complements
Sharp's processed tones and Tashi Dorji's punky gnarl. Sending metallic shards flying,
"Wildlife" is a suitably frenetic opener, while the queasily atmospheric "Seven Seize" is all swelling harmonics and melting clusters.
The shift from the percussive scrabble of
"The Moment" to the lunar notes of "Unfinished Conversation" is particularly satisfying.

Elliot Sharp, varcata decisamente la soglia dei settant'anni, non solo non è diventato chitarrista-pompiere, ma nel dubbio ha fatto provvista di materiale infiammabile sonico.
Nelle persone di Sally Gates, neozelandese guastatrice scelta delle sei corde elettriche, spesso con John Zorn, e Tashi Dorji, allievo di Derek Bailey, altro oltranzista sonoro, dal Bhutan (!). Metà di questo disco è pura, convulsa improvvisazione quasi materica, metà, a partire da Survey the
Damage, undici minuti celestiali, è psichedelia pura e assoluta.

There is an art to arranging the guests at a dinner party or wedding reception. One wants to foster interesting conversations, sometimes between strangers, and create new friendships. The same can be said of Ere Guitar, a party organized by Downtown legend Elliott Sharp. The guitarist had previously released Err Guitar (Intakt, 2017) with his colleagues American guitarists Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot. With this 2023 recording, Sharp invited New Zealand guitarist sally gates, who is a member of the experimental jazz-metal group Titan to Tachyons, and Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji to record a collection of mostly improvised trio numbers.

Sharp's party matches unacquainted musicians, but most certainly Gates, Dorji, and many creative musicians will be familiar with their host's massive discography and diverse tastes. Both Gates and Dorji have an inclination towards metal and extended guitar technique. Dorji leans into the reinvention of his instrument à la Derek Bailey and Gates smashes an avant-blues in the mix.

Eight of the ten tracks are completely improvised, and only "Drill Core" and "Popular Science" credit Sharp as the composer. The latter track trades off on the decay of guitar notes by the three performers while ramping up the intensity. "Unfinished Conversation" stretches what could be described as cetacea sounds—in other words, whale vocalization—into Sharp's dinner parlay. The crunch and gnawing sounds on tracks such as "Wildlife" and "Addressing The Convention" continue the three-way dialogue as each musician applies effects and adds to the dialogue. All credit to Sharp for orchestrating this assemblage of guitars, and for the creation of new partners and friends.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/ere-guitar-elliott-sharp-sally-gates-tashi-dorji-intakt-records

Ere Guitar (Intakt 418) hat einen Vorläufer in „Err Guitar" (2017), ELLIOTT SHARPs gitar-ristischem Dreizack mit Mary Halvorson & Mark Ribot. Hier klingt er zusammen mit SALLY GATES, die, aus Neuseeland stammend, in New York mit dem Kilter-Drummer Kenny Grohowsky in Titan to Tachyons spielt, und mit TASHI DORJI, der, aus Bhutan stammend, in Asheville, NC ansässig, mit Manas, mit Dave Rempis in Kuzu, und in x improvisatorischen Konstellationen seine Kratzspuren hinterlassen hat. Harry Lachner nimmt sie mit einem erfreulichen Lebenszeichen exemparisch für eine durch gezielte Mehrdeutigkeit angestrebte Evokation des Unerhörten, in dem, schwindelerregend, die Pluralität des Gegenwärtigen einen treffenden Ausdruck findet. Sharp selber nannte es mal transcendent sonic path to the NOW. Und ist es nicht auch der Weg, aus Facetten, Differenzen, Gegenreden weder Missklang noch Einstimmigkeit abzuleiten, sondern die verwirklichbare und für kurze Augenblicke schon verwirklichte Idee von Freiheit als variable Ordnung? Ob Sharp, wenn er als Sohn einer Holocaustüberlebenden als BDS-Unterstützer und mit Shelley Hirsch und Anthony Coleman als „Musicians for Gaza" auftritt, dieser Idee einen guten Dienst erweist, scheint mir, selbst wenn er (This in no way absolves Hamas of their barbaric murders of Israeli and other civilians.) in Klammern hinzufügt, zweifelhaft. Aber Err, Ere, Eris ist nun mal die Herrin unserer Zeit.
So wie hier in wild verzahnter, kakophon verdichteter Widerborstigkeit, die aber auch, nicht weniger schräg, harft, klirrt und sich psychedelisch windet. Nur scheinbar zieht da jede/r für sich die Saiten krumm, in perkussiver Aleatorik, drahtigem, prasseligem, stolperndem Scharr- und Klingklang, eigensinnigem Tapping. In der Summe wird daraus ein stachelschweinisches Fest, mit prickelnd geheulten, tremolierten, gekrabbelten Web-und dröhnenden, schillernden, surrenden Kettfäden. 'Zuviel des Guten' als Einwand verriete nur einen tönernen Kopf, der fürchtet, unter dieser pleromalen Ausschüttung, diesen tanzenden Hagelkörnern zu zerspringen. Aber dem wird dann ja das Jaulen und Stöhnen bei 'Unifinished Conversation' aus der Seele sprechen. [BA 124 rbd]