Lillian
New member
The instrumental acoustic-guitar duo Terra Guitarra starts with a nuevo flamenco Latin-style guitar sound and then branches off from there with additional influences from Greece, Native America and the folk music world. Bruce Hecksel and Julie Patchouli both play acoustic guitars, presumably both nylon-string and steel-string on various tunes (kind of hard to tell because of the richness and denseness of their sound). Hecksel is in charge of the solos and this guy is hot! He also composes, arranges, produces, engineers and paints the CD packaging artwork, and musically adds wood flute on a few tracks plus various other instruments. His co-hort, Julie Patchouli, plays rhythm guitar (strummed or finger-picked) and on their new CD, Of Sea & Stars, adds bass, hand-drums and percussion (I definitely hear congas or some similar type of Latin drums). Both musicians are excellent in their respective roles. These two are completely mesmerizing and captivating on-stage (just go to youtube and watch several of their live-in-concert videos).
They seem endlessly inventive because none of their melodies sound alike and all of their music is attention-getting. Apparently this is their eighth album (although they apparently also perform together in a folk-vocal group that has separate recordings). Terra Guitarra is earthy-and-grounded (like tribes living close to the land), primal-yet-polished (like a stone in a stream-bed), and magical-and-mystical (like a medicine man/woman thousands of years ago).
On each tune the two guitars really mesh and work together, but on some there is even additional guitar interplay (“Alegria” and “Aurora,” for examples). Sometimes the Latin aspects come to the forefront (such as on “Wave Walker” and “Cicadia”), but they work in the Native American Indian feeling using the cedar flute on “Of Wind & Wood,” and then they skip over to “Zobra the Greek” country for the building-to-crescendo “Zorbas” (their only cover tune).
If you like the sound of acoustic guitars, and who doesn’t, you must check out this group. This album is as good a place to start as any, but really you will not be disappointed with any of their eight recordings. Put it on quietly in the background at your next dinner party and I guarantee that at some point, during the CD or just when it ends, someone will turn to you and say, “Who was that we were listening to? That was wonderful.”
They seem endlessly inventive because none of their melodies sound alike and all of their music is attention-getting. Apparently this is their eighth album (although they apparently also perform together in a folk-vocal group that has separate recordings). Terra Guitarra is earthy-and-grounded (like tribes living close to the land), primal-yet-polished (like a stone in a stream-bed), and magical-and-mystical (like a medicine man/woman thousands of years ago).
On each tune the two guitars really mesh and work together, but on some there is even additional guitar interplay (“Alegria” and “Aurora,” for examples). Sometimes the Latin aspects come to the forefront (such as on “Wave Walker” and “Cicadia”), but they work in the Native American Indian feeling using the cedar flute on “Of Wind & Wood,” and then they skip over to “Zobra the Greek” country for the building-to-crescendo “Zorbas” (their only cover tune).
If you like the sound of acoustic guitars, and who doesn’t, you must check out this group. This album is as good a place to start as any, but really you will not be disappointed with any of their eight recordings. Put it on quietly in the background at your next dinner party and I guarantee that at some point, during the CD or just when it ends, someone will turn to you and say, “Who was that we were listening to? That was wonderful.”