For his second Pentatone release Lost & Found, Sean Shibe trades in his acoustic guitar for an electric model, supplanted by an array of sophisticated pedals. Although Shibe mixes and matches a wide array of composers, the recital’s overall trajectory evokes the kind of moody, slow moving soundscape one associates with “ambient” music practitioners like Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, and Harold Budd.
Play Hildegard von Bingen’s O choruscans lux stellarum and Olivier Leith’s “Pushing my thumb through a plate” back to back, for example, and you’d be hard pressed to determine who’s who, or, for that matter, which composer was born in 1098 and which was born in 1990! At the same time, the long sustained dissonant chords in Julius Eastman’s Buddah and the gentle, prickly melodic flourishes in Messiaen’s O sacrum convivium add welcome stylistic variety.
The three Moondog selections prove my long-held point that if you play any of his catchy and disarming pieces on electric guitar, they wind up sounding like late 1960s/early 1970s psychedelia; think of Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen noodling around, and you’ll get what I mean.
Originally for string quartet, Shiva Feshareki’s graphically scored VENUS/ZOHREH emerges here in harmonically static form, building from soft and ambling to loud and pulsating. Bill Evans’ Peace Piece slows down and disintegrates in Shibe’s hands, while Meredith Monk’s nine-and-a-half-minute Nightful goes on too long for what the music has to say. While Shibe’s polished craftsmanship and careful program building do not hold my undivided attention, I invite curious listeners to check out this release and decide for themselves.
