Inspired by Eugene Chadbourne's experiments with thrift shop guitars, Milwaukee visual artist and composer/improviser Thomas Gaudynski took his own warped, secondhand acoustic ax through some unconventional maneuvers on Kay.
As with Chadbourne's late-'70s explorations, Gaudynski's work emphasizes the guitar (de-fretted and with warped neck) as an instrument of resonation more than melodic lines and chordal strumming. It may be difficult listening for those whose idea of guitar music extends to Segovia or Parkening, but Gaudynski revisits inventions and intentions given the instrument by early acoustic bluesmen. Those same old-timers who had to make their unamplified instruments resonate in dance halls and fields might not have made their wires and wood mimic organs and theremins, but Gaudynski's use of bows compellingly works to those effects as well.
