The Guitar as Orchestra: Experimental Guitar Series, Vol. 1

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Guitar as Orchestra was originally intended to be the first in a series of Experimental Guitar albums created by Adrian Belew, mostly as a means of expressing the musical concepts that would otherwise not be released by conventional recording labels. All ten compositions--performed on a custom Fender Stratocaster and utilizing such technical elements as Roland guitar synthesizers, Korg guitar processors, and Roland delays (to name a handful of production components--could be categorized as "difficult listening music" (to use a term created by performance artist and Belew-contemporary Laurie Anderson).

According to the liner notes:

As the name implies, this is modern classical music in which the guitar plays the role of the various components of an orchestra. Every sound on the record is made with guitar. Part of the experimental nature of the music comes in designing those sounds rather than using samples of actual instruments. The compositions themselves were experiments.

While the artist was hopeful that this album would be appreciated, the majority of critics did not know what to make of this avant-garde work. Although there had been plans to create a second release entitled The Animal Kingdom, there has been no word of this subsequent effort either being created or released. While many consider The Guitar as Orchestra to be little more than a failed experiment, the severity of criticism seems to have squelched any aspiratons of Belew's to continue with his Experimental Guitar series in the foreseeable future.

This album was released under the imprimatur of Adrian Belew Presents in coordination with Discipline Global Media (UK).