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Thurston Moore: GALAXIES 12x12

Music for Twelve 12-String guitars

Thurston Moore enjoys a glass of red wine in the guardian whilst looking wistfully off into the distance

Arch-experimentalist Thurston Moore premieres his new work GALAXIES, leading a symphony of 12-string guitars in this two-part programme – the first half acoustic, the second electric.

This isn’t a rock band – it’s an orchestra, with Moore as conductor and composer. Twelve guitarists are arranged as if one instrument, exploring the vast emotional depths present in 12 strings. Taking inspiration from a poem by Sun Ra and featuring cosmos projections by Radio Radieux, GALAXIES ponders our place in the universe over two parts – ‘Earth’, an acoustic meditation on nature and animal wildlife; and ‘Sky’, which translates space’s great expanse into an electric guitar onslaught. 

Thurston Moore has done more to change the vernacular of guitar music than almost any other player to emerge from the post-punk era. With Sonic Youth, he manipulated guitars to be transcendent, utilising everything from drumsticks to screwdrivers to expand the instrument’s voice and potential. This spirit of innovation continues in his solo work, most recently on 2017’s Rock n Roll Consciousness.
 

Tagged with: Contemporary music

Guitarists

Rachel Aggs (Trash Kit, Shopping, Sacred Paws)

Jen Chochinov (Schande)

Joseph Coward (Camp X-Ray, Stiffy Byng Records)

Eugene Coyne 

Jonah Falco (Fucked Up, Career Suicide)

Deb Googe (My Bloody Valentine, Thurston Moore Group, the So Sorrys, Primal Scream)

James McCartney 

Thurston Moore

James Sedwards (The Devil, Nøught, Thurston Moore Group)

Susan Stenger (Band of Susans, The Brood, Big Bottom)

David Toop (The Flying Lizards, Frank Chickens, Alterations)

Alex Ward (N.E.W, Dead Days Beyond Help, Predicate)

 

Radio Radieux filmmaker
 

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