Young Swedish guitarist Kasper Agnas, the winner of the Montreux Jazz Electric Guitar Competition in 2017, want us to explore anew the sound of the guitar. His debut solo album, «Grain», asks what really happens – or sounds – when only the seed of a piece of music remains. In order to solve this koan, Agnas reconstructed elaborate, composed music in a free-improvised manner. He did so in a nuanced and methodic way, emphasizing the sense of time – slow – and space. The sound of his electric guitar is simple, raw, sometimes even innocent, and always surprising with its detailed timbral qualities. Agnas thinks that you may want to listen to «Grain» «as an accompaniment to everyday life».

Agnas conceived «Grain» in the last two years. The album is released by the newly-founded, Stockholm-based, musicians cooperative label Haphazard Music in a limited-edition of 300 vinyls. The mixing and mastering were done by guitarist and sound artist Giuseppe Ielasi.

Agnas succeeded to create an intriguing, original sound of his own and a unique conception of time. In the first piece «Amnis (Creek’s Dream of Ocean)», Agnas’ methodical strumming of the guitar patiently drowns in a gentle storm of noise. The following «1992», the year that Agnas was born, is based on a repetitive and angular pattern of guitar lines, sounding like revolving on its own sonic axis, and on this pattern, Agnas injects brief, delicate and highly resonant gestures. «Far away, closer» is a sparse texture, where the tangible, resonant sounds of the guitar float slowly and occupy the reverberating space. The last piece «Mirrored Memories» contrasts a dark drone of sustained guitar lines with sparse but melodic and innocent gestures.

Eyal Hareuveni

Kasper Agnas (g)