MP3 Peter Haeder - Emerald

Emerald's melodic, layered guitars transport the listener to a place of mystery and myth. Performed with mastery and passion, Emerald lifts classical, flamenco and jazz guitar onto a higher plane.

10 MP3 Songs
NEW AGE: Contemporary Instrumental, CLASSICAL: Contemporary



Details:
ABOUT PETER HAEDER

Peter Haeder, originally from northern Germany, moved to New Zealand 23 years ago. He quickly established himself as a leading avant-garde guitarist and composer for film and television, with his outstanding sense of pop/jazz/blues/ melody and hooks. He has worked with New Zealand's top performance artists to wide acclaim, playing to standing ovations at Womad and Free Tibet.

He studied Performance Art with Prof. Harry Kramer at the prestigious Arts School in Kassel, Germany and played for Germanyâs Cultural Minister on invitation. Peter is also a long-time Buddhist with a profound mastery of the esoteric one voice chord chant, now only taught at two monasteries in the world. Over the past five years, and much to the amusement of the Tibetan Lamas, he has married this with his German electronic roots with Flamenco and Jazz.

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REVIEWED BY GRAHAM REID, ELSEWHERE, APRIL 2006

Guitarist Haeder -- who sometimes records as phaeder -- has certainly spread his talents widely: he's played avant-garde improvised music; made music for film and television; done an album of almost life-threateningly fast techno (Lotus Beat of 2003); and, as a longtime Buddhist, has recorded haunting deevotional chants. On Emerald however he pulls up a rack of mostly acoustic guitars and sits down for some fire-side melodies which are as enchanting as they are interesting. From another room it might sound like a Guitars by Moonlight album, but closer listening reveals that Haeder's melodies are much more complex than that. That said however, he never abandons the listener to become indulgent, and keeps the focus on developing his gentle tunes and teasing out their harmonies. Think Julian Bream rather than massage music in other words -- although these tunes are certainly also restful.


REVIEWED BY DIOGENES, WWW.KIWIREVIEW.CO.NZ, JULY 2006

We rarely get customer comments about any of the music we play, and this CD attracted the most comments of any CD I have played. EVER. This album is a joyful mix of tracks, that shows that the album description, for once, is accurate and not just marketing hype. All tracks were enjoyed as an ambient music for the shop that was never distracting, and just added to the relaxed atmosphere we have in the shop, at times bordering on a relaxation CD, without the extraneous whale-song, waterfalls or other organic sounds. This CD did all that on pure talent and musicianship.

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Q + A WITH PETER HAEDER

What was your intention behind this album?
Emerald was a step away for me from all the fast guitar playing I have done in the past. In essence I wanted to write music specific for guitar, which is beautiful and healing, and also capitalises on the capabilities of that instrument. There are things you can do with a guitar that you can not do with a keyboard for instance or a reed instrument. In addition, for me Emerald is rooted in spirituality and the European landscape. While composing it I had visions of the forests around my home town area, laden with legends and myths â some of which are found to be true, like the "dwarfs who lived in the mountains and made swords.â All the music on Emerald is steeped in the more classical way of triadic chord structures and melodic playing. For instance, on Sonata for Assiza I use a lute technique, playing with the flesh of the thumb. That gives the guitar a fat sound with a soft attack, somehow like a voice.

What was the process of recording it?
When I first came to the studio with Steve [Garden, the albumâs engineer, mixer and co-producer], I had a bottle of red wine, and we sat and discussed how we were going to record. I had "trained up" for the recordings with metronome and fret exercises ready to launch. Steve suggested we forget about that and instead let the music do its own thing. From that appeared a quality unique to guitar playing, lilting. So, instead of striving for the technically perfect take I meditated before and during recording sessions to reach deep into the spiritual side of the music and manifest that. I hope people can hear that in the music.

Did you draw on any musical influences while conceiving and making this album?
Obviously the whole European composersâ tradition, particularly Bach. Then there are my favourite guitareros like Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin and John Abercrombie. And also the more avant-garde noise artists of the seventies and eighties. Even though listeners may not pick up on it at first take, there are a few interesting sounds on the album, made by using a guitar in unconventional ways, Steve always encouraged that sort of thing to enhance the ambience of the album, and I went for it because I love experimenting. Then there is my love of "weird" time signatures. For example, EBE Goes Home starts with 6/8, goes to 3/4, and ends in a straight 4/4. I find improvising on those time signatures a challenge, and when it works it's really quite something. The reason for writing it this way was an attempt to get a handle on how music from an advanced "Alien" culture could possibly sound. (EBE means Extra Terrestrial Biological Entity.) Fire Circle must be the fastest work on the album. I used my old Admira with a pick, crisp take too! Alberto Santarelli bows a beautiful drone on the double base on this one â very yummy!

What would you like the audience to take away after listening to Emerald?
Feeling good and being relaxed. Maybe going on a journey with me to those green forests and lakes after a hard dayâs work with a glass of Bordeaux and a spoonful of Sauerkraut (I am joking!)