Keeping tracks BASIL RAMSEY finds fresh guitar tracks to draw upon Archer Records    ARR-31919

CDs of programmes containing short to medium pieces for a single instrument or group need to be categorised with a note of the favoured tracks or they may drop out of sight when we shelve the record as part of our collection. My own inconsistency with this rule has temporarily mislaid valuable pieces through muddleheadedness on various occasions. There's nothing quite so irritating as time wasted hunting a misplaced CD months or even a year later.

Without an overdose of collecting mania I find records such as this one under scrutiny have tracks that 'bond' with our feelings and therefore complete an experience. To me this is part of the joy of music and a personal way of building a library.

This particular CD houses a miscellany of little known yet worthy 20th century music for guitar. Amongst the best tracks are Ojos Brujos by Leo Brouwer [listen -- track 12, 0:00-1:08] and Broken slurs by Barbara Kolb, both with shape and inventiveness enough to draw the serious listener. The guitarist performs as one with genuine affection for the instrument, thereby creating the link for ear, music, and performance.

For help listening to the sound extracts here, please refer to our questions & answers page.

Record Box is Music & Vision's regular Saturday series of shorter CD reviews