About Me
Disc releases related to Gilbert Isbin are now approaching twenty and from the very beginning, his music has been characterized by the duality of “contemporary classical music†and “modern jazz†or “composed music†and “improvised music†with his compositions presenting a multitude of polyrhythm and sound effects as well as almost flatulent melodies or colourful harmonies,
He collaborated and performed all over Europe and in the US with a.o. Jeff Gauthier, Cameron Brown, Joe Fonda, Vinny Golia, Hanka Rybka, Scott Walton, Ernst Reijseger, Jan Kuijken, Michel Godard, Jatinder Thakur, Hugh Hopper, Wolfgang Reisinger, John Ruocco, Sandro Di Stefano, Sandor Szabo, Balazs Major, Iep Fourier,...
Apart from composing he is also interested in free (melodic) improvisisation and open for new projects.
His compositions are published by Berben Ediziones Musicales (Italy) Lantro Music, Golden River Music, Copa,.. An instructional CDrom on Guitar Techniques has been released in 2007 by Acoustic Guitar Workshop.com http://acousticguitarworkshop.com/fsalamode/
Gilbert is recently concentrating on playing and composing contemporary music for the lute. Examples of compostions are on his site
http://users.pandora.be/gilbert.isbin/contents.html
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ME REVIEWS
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EJAZZNEWS By Glenn Astarita
Finesse, discernible ingenuity and a highly entertaining form-factor are but a few of the attributes uttered throughout this unit’s musicality.
JAZZRYTMIT (Finland) : In short, I find this a very fine record.
BRIDGE GUITAR REVIEWS, The musicians all interact perfect at that’s why
this CD is a recommendation for any music enthusiast.
STAGE, (B) N°132, September 2006 , Dirk Freyns, **** Stunning musicianship. WWW.IMPROV.HU :Venice Suite is chamber music of an extraordinarily honest kind somewhere between contemporary classical music and exceptionally creative jazz. I can only recommend it.
ACOUSTIC GUITAR WORKSHOP.COM (UK) by Steve Elliott
Hats off to one of Fingerstyle’s great pioneers.
GUITAR PLAYER, USA (JR)
"... but his trademark is quiet lyricism, the kind of conscious musicianship that distinguishes players like Ralph Towner and Egberto Gismonti."
DIRTY LINEN, JULY, USA (TJM)
Gilbert Isbin, a master guitarist from Belgium, plays with subtle brilliance through all of these 11 songs.
ALL ABOUT JAZZ.COM, USA,(GLENN ASTARITA) **** 1/2
In somewhat of a loosely based connotation, Belgian based guitarist Gilbert Isbin could be the European counterpart to America’s legendary acoustic guitarist John Fahey.
COLUMBIA RIVER READER, USA (A. PATTERSON)
One of the continents most talented guitar players.
ACOUSTIC GUITAR REVIEW : Gilbert Isbin pushes the boundaries of what is possible on the acoustic guitar.
OPTION, No.23, USA (Bart Grooms)
"Isbin and Szabo achieve such empathy and improvise so adeptly that they make this album one of the finest two guitar sets since Towner and John Abercrombie’s 1976 Sargasso Sea."
GUITAR PLAYER, USA (Jas Obrecht)
"...his moody, evocative atmospheres would be the perfect complement for a modern-day ’film noir’. This music encourages deep introspection."
MINOR7TH : Isbin has created a dreamy meditative compilation of Drake tunes using only a nylon-string guitar, occasionally overdubbed into two tracks. I like the mood that Isbin has fostered here.
