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Acoustic Guitar Master Toulouse Engelhardt Creates Sonic Palettes On New CD, Perpendicular Worlds, June 8 On Lost Grove Records LAGUNA BEACH, CA – Lost Grove Records announces a June 8 release date for Perpendicular Worlds, the latest CD from instrumental acoustic guitar master Toulouse Engelhardt, with international distribution by MVD Entertainment Group. Produced by TEA Productions and recorded at MusiTech Studios in Redmond, Oregon, and Palm Studios in Hermosa Beach, California, Perpendicular Worlds is the perfect showcase for Engelhardt’s amazing talents as a guitar player, as he captures a dazzling array of sounds in his tone poems crafted as sonic palettes of music. “The concept behind the new recording is a mental collision of intersecting lines and themes,” says Toulouse Engelhardt. “The horizontal-latitudinal frets of the guitar intersect the longitude vertical strings in perpendicular collision. The album is divided into two areas: Inner Space – the horizontal; and Outer Space – the vertical. The album is a tableau of 13 songs, all performed on the acoustic 12-string guitar, with the exception of two Spanish guitar works.” Perpendicular Worlds features 10 original songs, a contemporary arrangement of “Anji,” composed by the late English guitar great Davey Graham; a cover of Victor Young’s “Blue Star;” and a mesmerizing version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone from the Sun.” It also includes an Engelhardt track recorded live at a UCLA concert in 1978. Toulouse Engelhardt was raised for most of his life in Southern California’s beach culture and began playing the guitar at the age of six. His earliest influences were the “wet” driving instrumental sounds of surf music by legends such as The Ventures and Dick Dale. He claims to have had just two guitar lessons in his life: as a youngster, guitar great Larry Carlton taught him how to play The Ventures’ classic, “Walk Don’t Run;” and when he was 13, legendary jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery gave him some tips in technique at the backstage door of the famous Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach at one o’clock in the morning. Toulouse Engelhardt has earned critical praise over the decades for his lightning-fast fingerstyle guitar work and colorful, cinematic melodies. He was the last original member of the so-called “Takoma Seven,” the highly celebrated innovators of fingerstyle guitar that recorded for Takoma Records in the 1960s-1970s, which included John Fahey and Leo Kottke. His sound includes elements of traditional Americana, acoustic blues, folk, ragtime, jazz, classical, surf music and world beat. His first album, Toullusions, released on Takoma Records in 1976 and called one of the top 10 solo fingerstyle guitar albums of all time, was later re-released with bonus tracks by Hollywood Records in 1994. Other prior CDs on Lost Grove Records include a Mosrite electric guitar compilation titled Martian Lust (2006), which has achieved cult status among guitar fans, and Lubbock Lights (2007), an ambient electronic groove track laid down by the southern California production team TEA, over which Engelhardt composed and played a melodic effects-laden sci-fi reflection, paying tribute to the 1951 UFO sighting in Lubbock, Texas, from which the tune’s title is derived. Toulouse Engelhardt has been called a “guitar genius” (L.A. Times) and someone who “plays the guitar with such dexterity that it sounds like he has at least 15 fingers” (All Music Guide). An advance review of Perpendicular Worlds describes it as “Jimmy Page and John Fahey interwoven together in a stellar merger of fascinating acoustic vignettes” (Music Web Express 3000). And legendary guitarist David Lindley calls Engelhardt “one of my all-time favorite guitar players.” Toulouse Engelhardt will tour in support of the release of Perpendicular Worlds, not only as a soloist, but as a duet with internationally acclaimed percussionist Hani Naser, and as part of his all-star world beat band that includes former drummer of the legendary Doors, John Densmore. For more information, visit www.toulousemusic.com. |
