Guitar & Voice Eric Chenaux

"Songs hover above the ebb and flow of Chenaux’s unhurried guitar – there’s a stillness at the album’s heart, like watching harbour lights at midnight. It’s Amnesiac-era Radiohead transposed to a jazz bar. Chenaux’s voice is high, jazz-tinged and husky, like a latterday Arthur Russell, or indeed Thom Yorke. His drifting ballads of urban lovesickness offer a heartfelt kind of alt lounge music that is irony-free... As with the whole album, considerable care has been taken with the sound, and these are bright, ringing consorts like a meditative viol group or gathering of Hardanger fiddles...Chenaux’s voice in particular benefits from the game-raising approach. An interesting example of a performer getting more experimental and simultaneously more studio-savvy, Chenaux has produced his best work yet." – The Wire

"In addition to placing his delicate songs into a nakedly intimate and idiosyncratic soundworld, this disc also constitutes the best portrait of Chenaux as a wildly imaginative and extremely sensitive guitarist... [Guitar & Voice] is full of the exotic textures and warped phrasing one may have hoped for—ripe chromatic notes dangle inexplicably, thin sustained tones fray at their ends, copious amounts of wah-wah smear and smother loose-stringed bends as drones haunt the periphery. Yet, all the while, it retains a certain poise and clarity perfectly encapsulating what is so intriguing about Chenaux. The gorgeous viol-like bowed guitar instrumentals that make up the interstitial tracks are also a welcome surprise, with their peculiar harmonic intersections and flattened, coarse inflection." – Musicworks

"[Guitar & Voice] is just that, just those perfect things, guitar and voice - coaxed & shattered & sublimated & splintered & mirrored & burned to ash...This is unquestionably one of the best albums of 2012." – Said The Gramophone

"The album alternates between atmospheric, lushly textured instrumental pieces and gorgeous ballads that feature Chenaux's warm, feather-stroke vocal melodies... Throughout the collection Chenaux combines meticulous songcraft with experimental instincts, so no matter how pretty or tuneful a piece is, he adds compelling layers of noise and texture, shaped with an improviser's sense of adventure." – Chicago Reader

"I’m in love with Eric Chenaux’s Guitar & Voice... Whether Chenaux is delivering compelling images atop gentle guitar solos or producing long, airy drones, the sound throughout is intoxicating. Recorded by Radwan Moumneh at Six Saint V, a small Montreal apartment provided by Constellation to visiting musicians, Guitar & Voice has a sound that is both distant and dreamlike (guitar) and present and natural (voice), making it great fun to listen to on the hi-fi. I was hooked from the opening moments of the album’s lead track, 'Amazing Backgrounds'." – Stereophile

"On the album’s instrumental tracks—only four of the nine songs feature his airy falsetto—Chenaux’s bowed guitar is a swirling insect-buzz of drone notes and haunting melodies. It’s the sort of playing that leaves you wondering how those sounds are even possible—like he’s performing music alchemy. Paired with the breathy ballads, the instrumentals add intrigue to this compelling collection. Chenaux delivers a quiet intensity, but it’s no less powerful than full-scale rock bombast." – The Grid TO

"When he sings, Chenaux’s airy vocals magically, or more accurately impossibly, move mountains and melt ice...Guitar & Voice is, ultimately, simply a voice and a guitar and perhaps his stark presentation is why the connection is so powerful. Chenaux’s compositions have an intensity that is not often found in such precious pieces, but the open ended nature of the songs let the listeners consume the songs fully and completely." – HeroHill

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