Performer: Sean Shibe
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Delphian
Size: 582 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Oswald: Divertimento No. 1
02. anon.: Ladie lie near me (from the Wemyss Manuscript)
03. anon.: Mervell’s Sarabande (from the Wemyss Manuscript)
04. anon.: A Scotts Tune, by Mr. Lesslie (from the Balcarres Manuscript)
05. anon.: Holi and Faire (from the Wemyss Manuscript)
06. anon.: Swit Sant Nickola (from the Rowallan Manuscript)
07. anon.: Straloch Lute Book: The Canaries I
08. anon.: Straloch Lute Book: The Canaries II
09. anon.: A Scots Tune (from the Rowallan Manuscript)
10. MacMillan: From Galloway
11. MacMillan: Since it was the day of preparation… – Motet I
Reich: Electric Counterpoint
12. I. Fast
13. II. Slow
14. III. Fast
Wolfe: LAD
15. I. [Drones Only]
16. II. The Slow Melody
17. III. The Fast Melody
18. Lang, D: Killer
Shortlisted in both ‘Instrumentalist’ and ‘Young Artist’ categories at the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, Sean Shibe makes his second outing on Delphian with a programme of radical contrasts that showcases virtuosity at both extremes.Where his debut album Dreams & Fancies paid homage to the guitar repertoire created by his great predecessor Julian Bream, softLOUD looks ambitiously forward,with a mix of electric and acoustic, early and modern, whose contradictions and challenges speak to our own times.The gentle beauty of Scottish lute manuscripts and of two short instrumental solos by James MacMillan is confronted by,and holds its own against, music by New York-based composers Julia Wolfe a work of cathartic grief and anger originally scored for nine bagpipes and David Lang, whose electric violin work Killer is ironclad in its abrupt fury. Shibe has arranged all of this music himself, and presents it here alongside a breathtaking recording of Steve Reich’s now classic Electric Counterpoint. ‘Have we today forgotten how to speak with grace,’ Shibe asks, ‘or is the real danger that we aren’t screaming loudly enough?’
SoftLOUD is a gripping recital from guitarist Sean Shibe, dealing in extremes I suspect his beautifully touched-in accounts of pieces from 17th-century Scottish manuscripts will get more living-room plays than Julia Wolfe’s LAD, an abrasive electric-guitar scream originally conceived for nine bagpipes. In between, he also supplies a definitive performance of Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint. –The Guardian