High Low Duo, 'The Enchanted Garden'

The electric guitar too often triggers the image of a solitary dude shredding his fingers raw beside a stack of thunderous amplifiers. But in the right hands the instrument can astonish with a colossal range of subtle textures and colors. And that is precisely what's offered by the High Low Duo, Cameron Greider and Jack Petruzzelli, two veteran rock guitarists who have arranged classics by Maurice Ravel and Béla Bartók for their new album. Ravel's magical Mother Goose (from 1910) concludes in the "Enchanted Garden" which, in this arrangement, is a beautifully chilled out oasis. The guitars intertwine, singing in close harmony, finishing each other's phrases in radiant transparency. Gradually, the music builds to an explosion of colors, like a morning sun rising in all its blinding glory. This performance proves that it's not how many notes you can play, it's knowing how to pick just the right ones.

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