Handmade instrumental acoustic ambient trio, 'Acoustic playound' is a laid back hybrid of folk, jazz and blues rolled into one. 30 seconds of the first track will have you smitten.

10 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Jazzy folk, FOLK: Fingerstyle

Show all album songs: Acoustic Playground Songs


Details:
Influences
Andy, Eddie and Egly have a diverse range of influences stretching across musical forms, styles and eras.

In their own words ... ...

Egly Lucas
I first picked up the guitar at the age of fourteen after a year of disastrous trumpet lessons. I gave up the trumpet declaring myself unmusical. Then a guitar appeared in the house and I just began messing around on it, taking to it straight away. This self-teaching was a fundamentally different approach to formal lessons and relied on listening.

From the start Iâve always played with other musicians and my approach to music is about collaboration: responding in interesting ways to my musical environment. For me, music is about relationships and playing together can be an intimate experience.

In the last 35 years I have played with an almost seamless series of bands/projects. The interactive pursuit of playing music with people is a way of life and colours the way I look at life in general. Many of these bands have been highly original and more recently Iâve played in blues bands, exploring the idea of groove. I regard each band as an education in different aspects of music: chords and harmony; melody; groove; structure; improvisation and the downright weird.

My involvement in acoustic guitar is relatively recent, and began when I started building acoustic guitars. I found that the intricacies of sound available in a hand-made instrument was a new world after playing uninspiring factory guitars.

Eddie Tatton
Being involved in an improvisational all acoustic project is a nice departure away from the day job, as it were, as an electric blues guitarist. I played with Eg many years ago in the Walter Harpman Band, which specialised in harmonica led roots blues. Since then
Iâve toured extensively around festivals in Europe playing alongside Blues legends such as Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and even teaming up with the legendary Memphis Horns. My work takes in many styles and I have played with various hip hop bands including Nightmares on Wax, recording, touring and headlining on a major stage at Glastonbury in 2003. A recent nationwide touring project involves me undertaking the role of (guitarist) James Burton in a show celebrating Elvis' Aloha from Hawaii Concert.

All these projects have different disciplines and each require a different mindset from the other, some having every note played exactly the same in each performance. The Pavillionares is just three acoustic instrumentalists reacting together in an improvised manner over a base theme. It's not jazz, world or folk (but is influenced by all of these), rather three instruments coming together sounding as one. No two performances will ever be performed the same. Almost no verbal communication is used as we are trying to use music alone as a language and see where it takes us.

Andy Wheeler
I never learnt to read music, and didnât have any formal music lessons and this as much as anything has influenced my approach to music. I have borrowed styles from many places, picking up a note here, a phrase there. Being partially deaf on low frequencies, I tend not to listen to words in music, instead honing in on particular sounds. So Iâll often remember a song for all the âwrongâ reasons!

I have listened to many different guitarists over the years and have been âusingâ different tunings for a long time. In 1992 I was introduced to the C major tuning and I just left my guitar like that for about a decade. I always found it easier to be inspired if I could build some unpredictability into my playing â and new tunings help me do just that.

If I had to name just five people who have really inspired me especially in bringing together the Pavillionaires, I would go for the beautiful compositions and earthy arrangements of Simon Jeffes from Penguin Café Orchestra; the free form attacking style of Jimi Hendrix; the daring collaborations of Ry Cooder; the simple melodies of Bill Frisell; and by no means least, the art of improvisation in Django Reinhardt.