The guitarist Elliot Sharp is oneof the most striking personalities of the New York Downtown scene. Along with John Zorn, Arto Lindsay, Bill Frisell and Marc Ribot, Sharp has been at the heart of the post 80s innovations which took improvised, composed and electronic music beyond their boundaries, to merge them with jazz, blues and rock. Since then Sharp has expanded his musical radius. In addition to jazz, he plays in hardcore groups, cyberpunk bands, and has composed an impressive body of work for string quartets, theatre and orchestras. The CD of Concert in Dachau is one of Elliott Sharp’s most important recordings as a soloist. Musically it is a kind of remix of different solo programmes for electro-acoustic guitar. But it is more than that. As a jewish musician, Sharp is a descendant of parents who escaped the Holocaust, for which Dachau stands as a synonym. This makes ‘Concert in Dachau’ a very personal and moving statement from a political artist.

Graphic design: Jonas Schoder
Liner notes: Elliott Sharp
Photo: Cy Fore, Sascha Rheker