This is the guitar as it is rightly played. I speak not of the genre of music presented – which is a neuron-firing blend of jazz, free jazz, noise and punk aesthetics in the service of European folk melodies, among other things. I speak, rather, of the attack of Mary Halvorson on the guitar. The instrument appears as something she uses to express her feelings and ideas and stories; but the large and heavy hollow body guitar, made of polished wood and metal and electronics, also influences, in return, all she has to say. We hear in real time the mysterious interface between an artist and her tools. The instrument is influencing Halverson's expression of the song as much as Halvorson is influencing its articulation on the guitar – and these two processes occur simultaneously. We hear song that is the fruit of at least three converging forces: the melody of the original composition, Halvorson's understanding of that melody and, finally, its articulation via the big six-stringed and resonating instrument. Spirit in matter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXvs5_rLU9g
