Discography
27.02.08
Peter Stenberg - Auszüge
(Dogeared16)
In the simplest terms, what Peter Stenberg offers up with Auszüge, is a great guitar album—five pieces, more or less solos, for electric and acoustic, that are heartfelt, intelligent, and incisive. But what makes the album so distinctive is not the guitar playing (excellent as it may be), so much as the care with which Stenberg has digitally captured the sound of his guitar playing. It was only a couple years ago that the most a musician could hope to come up with from a home studio set-up was a demo-quality recording—a rough sketch, a raw outline of a project that would have to be re-recorded in a studio to really blossom. But recently, thanks to new technology and, more importantly, to innovative uses of that technology, artists can now create—without any outside help—finished and polished pieces. Which is exactly what Auszüge is—a fully realized piece of self-produced audio art. What makes the case of Auszüge so fascinating in this regard is that the subtleties and shades of tone and sound are not merely an end in themselves, but rather an integral part of the emotional experience that Stenberg is offering to the listener.The first track, “Das Wiedersehen,†functions like a prelude—it’s a quiet, thoughtful piece that sets the mood for what follows. What’s striking about it is the rich, round tone of Stenberg’s guitar. The notes seem to hang and glow in some kind of three-dimensional audiophile space. The track unwinds and then gently floats into “Ohne Titel,†where things really start to get interesting. The track begins as meditation on minor chords, but about half way through a little burst of feedback (or some other bit of electronic noise) enters the picture. It’s the kind of sound that engineers have dedicated their lives to eliminating, but Stenberg plays with it, entering into a kind of dialogue with it, gradually incorporating it into the composition.This sound-play continues in “Donnerstag,†a lyrical, folky acoustic piece that also happens to include a lot of incidental noise. You can hear Stenberg shift in his chair as he plays, for instance, and when he’s done you can hear a little electronic flutter when his guitar passes the microphone as he puts it down. This may have been accidental, but what’s certainly deliberate is the strange, sly melody that Stenberg coaxes out of that little flutter. Did he do it by moving the guitar or the microphone? Was it a bit of digital wizardry? I don’t know. But it’s enchanting.The fourth track, “Diskrepanz,†is another guitar and feedback dialogue. This time the mood is more thoughtful—like old friends reminiscing, sharing familiar jokes, and finishing each others’ sentences. Finally, “Egal†gives us a full-fledged sound collage. It starts with the sound of footsteps, then a fuzzy distant guitar takes up a wistful theme. As the track unwinds, more sounds come into play—voices, traffic, and other incidental traces of comings and goings, all somehow reflecting the glow of the guitar that’s nestled within. The melody would have been compelling played in any context—be it a bass/drums combo or a string orchestra—but nothing could have enhanced its underlying sense of yearning more than the soundscape Stenberg has crafted around it. It’s a more than satisfying conclusion to the album, and, indeed, nothing seems quite so appealing after “Egal†as letting “Das Weidersehen†start the whole thing off again.(Dave Keifer)
Free download at Dog Eared Records
18.09.07
Peter Stenberg - Uncharted Lands
(UR_030)
[...] Peter Stenberg's music is like droplets of dew in and around weathered mailboxes. Only the message is the dew, rippling with melancholy and beauty within. (Review by Max Go)
Free download at umor rex
01.07.07
Summerlights 2
33 artists from around the world, sharing deep open inspired work, 33 people sharing their work on a collective compilation, optimistic but realistic ...
Free download here!
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