Ameel Brecht
Polygraph Heartbeat

This is the solo debut of Ameel Brecht, member of the Belgian deep-listening, acoustic drone ensemble Razen.

Brecht is a trained guitar player who sends you with Polygraph Heartbeat on a journey through the body of a steel string resonator guitar and resonator mandolin. You are as close as possible to hear hints of baroque music, ragtime and folk music resonating in the instruments metallic cones. Steel on steel slide extravaganza and open tuning fretboard magic makes an outstanding and otherworldly listening experience.

The album is a reflection of polyphonic music as seen through a multi-coloured and highly personal lens, as Ameel’s guitar idiom crossbreeds a classical technique and weird open tunings with a love for early ragtime, slide grandmasters and baroque music. As is the case with Razen’s body of work, Brecht’s solo pieces confront because of their pureness and their focus on essential sound. Clear, precise phrases leave room for silence and slowly open a passageway to a undefined in-between world. Carried by a brutal and razor-sharp slide, nervousness and a languidly brooding atmosphere occasionally cut through the stillness. The transparent lyricism is not without a number of sonic shocks that expose Ameel as a former club-dweller and as fan of the Voivod guitarist Denis D’amour. Polygraph Heartbeat is an album which shows a committed musician who employs control and craftsmanship in order to dissect the Condition Humaine of the 21st Century.
-- KRAAK

Highly recommended, if you don't have the blues.

Available as limited vinyl record (300) or download.