Greek guitarist-composer Giorgos Tabakis captures on his solo 8 string guitar album «hEre nOw theN» his personal view of the sonic possibilities of the modern guitar. Tabakis offers a set of ten compositions and improvisations, assimilating elements and trends of tonal and atonal contemporary music,  modern jazz and prog-rock, spiced with Greek folk sound, often presented within the melodies and the percussive touches. The album was recorded at Aux studio Athens in January 2021.

Tabakis plays a custom-made 8 string MOOV guitar, made by luthier George Behlivanoglou, that often covers the sonic spectrum of the Balkan and Middle-Eastern and Eastern string instruments like the Indian sarod. Tabakis thinks about this instrument as an orchestral guitar, perceiving it as a piano or a string quartet. This guitar gave him the freedom to explore a new spectrum of frequencies, sound and parallel voices, challenging concepts, ideas and new techniques.

It is clear that Tabakis is fascinated by the infinite possibilities of the new guitar. Tabakis’ compositions are complex and dense. He is eager to investigate the sonic possibilities of the custom-made guitar, experiment, embrace and orchestrate contemporary music with jazz and prog-rock at the same time as well as techniques of other string instruments he mastered. Often he sounds like injecting steroids to the seminal influences of Egberto Gismonti or John McLaughlin (on his Shakti era). Only on the brief pieces like «Touch» or «Dream within a dream», where he focuses on fewer ideas, you can really appreciate his commanding virtuosity and his adventurous approach and vision.

Eyal Hareuveni

Giorgos Tabakis (8 string g)