B &W Bowers & Wilkins

Tom Kerstens

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Tom Kerstens and G Plus
Tom Kerstens is a major figure in the guitar world. He is highly regarded as a versatile performer on modern and period instruments and is an influential champion of the guitar in his roles as player, recording artist and artistic director. An acclaimed solo performer, Kerstens has also collaborated with many leading UK orchestras and ensembles, recently forming his own ensemble, G Plus, which is dedicated to performing especially commissioned new work. Utopia is G Plus’ debut recording.
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Tom on G Plus and the recording of his album:

"G Plus means guitar with something else. This can be guitar with other instruments, (e.g. the G Plus ensemble) or guitar with electronics (e.g. the three movements of The Third Fire). Both versions can be found in this recording.

The G Plus ensemble here consists of two guitars, strings and percussion. This line-up was discovered by chance and works extraordinarily well. I was first drawn to it following my collaborations with string quartets.

This instrumentation combined with the quality of recording offered by Real World in its atmospheric studio and the lack of compression and quality of reproduction in its outstanding, ‘lossless’ recordings, means that there can be real clarity and warmth.

For once, a recording can adequately reflect the range of sounds that the listener should be able to hear.

In the G Plus ensemble, the guitar’s plucked sound decays quickly; this contrasts with the sustained string sound. Combined with the vibraphone and in the absence of an inevitably dominant piano, the G Plus ensemble sounds quite magical.

"For once, a recording can adequately reflect the range of sounds that the listener should be able to hear." |Tom Kerstens|
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John Metcalfe says there is no other ensemble like this and that it reverses the role of the guitar. A rock guitar offers a vertical way of playing; there are chords and the guitar usually determines the key and how a piece modulates.

John has deployed the quartet in that vertical role for some of his G Plus pieces; he has used the guitar as a linear, horizontal instrument that does not just play chords but, instead, plays melodic lines. For John, this can make the guitar line much more fluid and interesting; the guitar can act as a more harmonic instrument - the role usually taken by the piano.

G Plus is an evolving term. It is the focus of IGF’s new music, new players and new compositions initiative.

As one example of future ambitions, from 2009, I am planning much wider projects, including young composers’ and young performers’ competitions and platforms at Kings Place in London and at other locations."

It is no accident that the two composers featured on this first G Plus recording both come from a background that combines art rock and classical training.

John Metcalfe, from New Zealand, was, in an earlier incarnation, the viola player for Manchester-based sonic adventurers Durutti Column and Joby Talbot was a key member of passionate ironists The Divine Comedy - both of them cult bands.

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