Erik Mongrain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Erik Mongrain

Background information
Birth name Erik Mongrain
Born Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genre(s) Jazz, New Wave, New Age
Occupation(s) Guitarist, composer
Instrument(s) acoustic Guitar
Years active 1994 -
Label(s) Prophase Music
Website www.erikmongrain.com
Lap-Tapping technique by Erik Mongrain.
Problems paying the file?
Erik Mongrain featuring on 2007 Guild catalog.
Erik Mongrain featuring on 2007 Guild catalog.
Concert in Montreal (2006).
Concert in Montreal (2006).

Erik Mongrain (born April 12, 1980 in Montreal, Québec, Canada) is a Canadian composer and guitarist, best known for his unique acoustic style, and his use of a two-handed tapping technique on the acoustic guitar.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Erik Mongrain taught himself guitar at the age of 14. As a boy he was mostly interested in sports, but picked up an interest in the guitar and began to teach himself to play by ear. Erik started out playing the electric guitar, but developed an interest in classical and acoustic guitar after hearing the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. Erik taught himself to read music, and began composing.

Erik Mongrain was inspired early on by the work of Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain. When he was 18, Erik heard the work of guitarist Don Ross, and he said "This was a new revelation to me. I finally found my niche."[1] After that, Erik was heavily influenced by the work of Michael Hedges. Erik also began to experiment with a technique known as "lap tapping," in which the player lays the guitar across their lap, and taps the strings on the fret board with both hands.

[edit] Current work

Erik Mongrain plays live shows in the United States, Canada, and England. He started out with street shows, and still does perform street and metro shows, as well as at concert venues and on television. Erik's music is going to be featured in a documentary produced by Lance Trumbull for the Everest Peace Project. He was recently featured on the cover of Guild Magazine. Erik was featured in Le Journal de Montréal and was written about in Journal Espagnol Granada. They wrote :

"the visitor (to Grenada) ... discovers rather good musicians, sometimes brilliant, who makes a pure delight of the city... Erik Mongrain, 21 years old, is one of them... The young interpreter does not play in a habitual manner but rather lays the guitar on his knees like a keyboard ... before discovering this new method, known under the name of "tapping", he studied classical guitar on his own"

Erik released his first full-length album, Fates, in December of 2006 on his website as a series of individually buyable/downloadable songs. The physical CD will be released in May of 2007.

Mongrain is invited for the premiere of the « World Music Heritage », drive by Gontiti on national japonese network (NHK) broadcast starts on may 2007. The footage was in Montreal's streets and Saint Joseph's Oratory reputed for it's acoutic.

During the whole summer 2007, Mongrain prepare a Tour around Europe, in particuliar, France, Belgium, Germany and United Kingdom. He'll be also on stage in his own province Québec for few performances. Meanwhile, the iVideoTune company will film four clips, such as Equilibrium, his latest composition.

[edit] Discography

  • Fates (2006)
  • Un paradis quelque part (2005)
  • Les pourris de talent (2005)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Biography on the official Website

[edit] Medias

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../e/r/i/Erik_Mongrain_2c07.html"
In other languages