ameel brecht: polygraph heartbeat

Next to being one of the core members of the acoustic deep listening ensemble Razen, Ameel Brecht is a trained guitar player who has a life-long involvement with the instrument's repertoire under his belt. On his debut album Polygraph Heartbeat, he puts his guitar-heart on the line by means of nine compositions for steel resonator and resonator mandolin. The album is a reflection of polyphonic music as seen through a multi-colored and highly personal lens, as Ameel's guitar idiom crossbreeds a classical technique and weird open tunings with a love for early ragtime, slide grandmasters, and baroque music. As is the case with Razen's body of work, Brecht's solo pieces confront because of their pureness and their focus on essential sound. Clear, precise phrases leave room for silence and slowly open a passageway to an undefined in-between world. Carried by a brutal and razor-sharp slide, nervousness, and a languidly brooding atmosphere occasionally cut through the stillness. The transparent lyricism is not without a number of sonic shocks that expose Ameel as a former club-dweller and as fan of the Voivod guitarist Denis D'amour. Polygraph Heartbeat is an album which shows a committed musician who employs control and craftsmanship in order to dissect the condition humaine of the 21st century.