jonathan badger

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"Experimental guitar work, implementing a diverse palette with focus on temporal & rhythmic elements. Two minutes after the CD arrived was in my player, two more minutes to hear the first track, that was enough to see that this CD is interesting enough and need to be heard, that is why I am writing this one. First of all the music can be considered as Ambient, but not that classical full of sounds ambient that we are used to. This music is calm and balanced, very clear and pure, simple as much as possible. That is the powerful combination that makes this work so nice! Listening to this CD your consciousness became still and relaxed, no other sound can bring your attention. The music has its own style that brings you in some magical but realistic world where you are calm and can collect your thoughts."
Radio Powernet November 28, 2006
"Badger’s equipment setup does Frippertronics proud, wherein his guitar is a guitar as well as a synthesizer, loop generator, and sample trigger. His music openly adopts an “ambient” tag although there’s definitely more rhythmic structure here. Badger frequently composes pieces—“Code,” “Vault,” “Egret”—that are beeping, rotating, floating rock’n’roll satellites, merging the tapped notes and chords of the late Michael Hedges with the technical arsenal behind Vernon Reid’s six-string screams and whispers. More interesting, especially knowing one set of hands generated this work spontaneously, are the noises and notes that move beyond the guitar realm. The arrangements and tweaking of “Beat On” and “Magnetism” create a virtual string section; “Tremble” adds illusory hurdy-gurdy and muted horns while “Flame” evokes a field of nighttime crickets. The interlude “Old Spiders” may be Badger’s technological zenith, an angular piece that evokes a large modern orchestra.. . . Badger’s work is too pleasing and—despite the absence of any overdubs—polished to ignore. (AB)"
e/i magazine March 17, 2007
". . . wonderful ambient music live, and using mostly incoherent pieces of gear, incorporating both primitive and modern equipment that’s not necessarily designed or intended to go together. He’s created beautiful and rich ambient tones, infused with rhythms by using subtle pulses .. which create an amazing soundscape that drives at a calm pace.”Beat on” is my favorite track off of his new album, Metasonic. Metasonic was created solely on a single guitar, and ends up sounding nothing like a guitar at many points on the album. I love guys who can pull this off without sounding trite or repetitive. I’m really blown away that this whole album was created on guitar – there are parts that leave me puzzled, as I don’t know how in the hell he gets some of the sounds out.
. . . This whole album was recorded live without any overdubs. Some parts of the album lead me to believe that it’s a bit improvisational, but doesn’t come off sounding confused at all. Overall the album is really wonderful and a unique piece of art."
Speed of Silence September 23, 2006
"[T]here is not the merest hint of a keyboard or drums, just the weird and (occasionally) wonderful sounds emanating from JB’s guitar. . ."
Richard White - The Silent Ballet (Dec 18, 2006)
If you like what you hear, you can purchace the cd here .
metasonic is also available for download on eMusic and iTunes .