mmm fun |
JAM WITH US!!
past topics:
does the 'gotan project' entice non-tango fans?
hentaigene - gorillaz new protégé?
New Online Music Community coming soon!
|
|
madam music meets pierre bensusan |
|
pierre bensusan
"Guitar playing so far above average as to approach the supernatural", - New York Times USA
“Pierre’s music gives me the shakes..sophistication, accessiblility and downright joy…”, Leo Kottke
"Pierre Bensusan has the liquid, relaxed manner of playing which has the easy inevitability of true genius." -Melody Maker (UK) |
French-Algerian guitarist, Pierre Bensusan is recognised as an innovator in the field of solo acoustic guitar. He is known in particular for his rare tuning style - DADGAD. At the age of 17 his first album “Pres de Paris” won the Grand Prix du Disque at the Montreux Festival. International tours and inspirational recordings have established him as, in the words of pianist George Winston “one of the truly gifted musicians of our time – he plays the guitar as if it were the very soul of himself.”
Madam Music had a fun and interesting interview with Pierre who is preparing for his UK tour. This is how it went...
|
1. Musical Style:
Why DADGAD and do you ever play in standard tuning?
"I recorded one track in standard tuning - Altiplanos. That's my only track in standard tuning over 30 years. Otherwise no. I am self-taught and I wanted to, right at the start, sound different from other people and have a different approach. I didn't want to go through the normal process of taking lessons because I already came from the classical piano. |
|
| When I took the guitar, I felt like being free and doing things my own way, without having someone on my back. I started playing with different tuning, without really knowing what I was doing, and came across DADGAD, just by coincidence… and found out that this form of tuning had been approached by other people. Then I was navigating from one tuning to another, not really knowing exactly what I was doing with my fingers or the fret board, and I started to become confused. It was good on the one hand, because the guitar sounded very flattering
and spirited, and my approach was somehow like a keyboard approach. I could get the same kind of fluidity that pianists can get when playing with two hands. Then I thought, I should maybe stick to one kind of tuning and learn how to play guitar using
a tuning I felt comfortable with. I chose DADGAD, as I thought it is available and open enough, a really neutral tuning with which I can approach any kind of music". |
| |
|
|
|
|
