Richard Pinhas Archive

Richard Pinhas and Barry Cleveland (guitars etc.) – Mu – Cuneiform

by Audiophile Audition | Jan 18, 2017 | Jazz CD Reviews

Two iconoclastic guitarists weave together an experimental, improvisational session. Richard Pinhas and Barry Cleveland – Mu – Cuneiform, Rune 426, 48:20 [1/16/17] ****: (Barry Cleveland – producer, mixer, guitar, Moog guitar, bowed guitar, bowhammer guitar, E-Bow guitar, sitar guitar, M-Tron, Vocalizer 1000, kalimba, zither, gong, incidental percussion, percussion programming, samples; Richard Pinhas – guitar, guitar synthesizer, Metatronics; Michael Manring – bass, E-Bow bass; Celso Alberti – drums, electronic drums, percussion) The 48-minute Mu is the first collaboration between French guitar individualist Richard Pinhas and equally inventive San Francisco Bay Area guitarist Barry Cleveland. The four extended tracks form an unpredictable, non-classifiable and arresting combination of progressive rock, art rock, experimental improvisation, instrumental psychedelia and intriguing electronics. For those not in the know, Pinhas has been a key person in experimental music since the early 1970s: in spirit he is France’s version of King Crimson’s Robert Fripp. Cleveland came to some prominence in the ‘80s and ‘90s, working in a number of bands and cross-genre projects. The two friends have played on stage but Mu marks the first time they have gone into a studio together. Rounding out the group is bassist Michael Manring, who was important to the Windham Hill […]