eric arn is an American, Vienna-based guitarist who has mined the nether regions of avant-rock, free improvisation, drone, and psychedelia since the 1980s. He is known from the American psych-rock band Primordial Undermind and the avant-rock Alle Foreman Trio.
Over Maribor was recorded during arn’s free improvised, solo electric guitar tour in Europe, at Club Wakuum in Graz in March 2025, for its !nterpenetration series, and two days before at Kontejner in Zagreb, for its Impronedjeljak series. The album features two untitled, extended improvisations. The album is released in a limited edition of 80 cassettes, with a download option.
«Graz» captures arn in a contemplative, free-associative mood, but faithfully reflects his extensive experience and distinctive approach to improvised guitar: intimate yet expansive, searching, yet richly textured. The music flows organically, moving seamlessly between fragile melodic fragments, overspeed density, and extended techniques, with great focus on timbral exploration and exploring the performance’s space. It often brings to mind the American primitive guitar school of John Fahey or the more eccentric experiments of Eugene Chadbourne, with some echoes of the seminal voice of Derek Bailey.
«Zagreb» begins with a more urgent and fierce mode, suggesting an unpredictable and more experimental edge, true to his Instagram moniker, guitar_wrestler, but mid-piece it opts to explore more melodic, vulnerable territories, before concluding with an intense, uncompromising attack. arn knows how to immerse himself in the art of the moment, and how to offer a compelling, insightful listening experience, for the audience near him and at home.
Eyal Hareuveni
eric arn (guitar)
