Reviews and Quotes for The Book of Crossings
The Book of Crossings
Kevin Kastning / Sándor Szabó
Greydisc Records - GDR3512
Available from CD Baby.
A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
by Mark S. Tucker
(progdawg@hotmail.com).
"I've been quite entranced with the past work of this duo and am always looking
forward to more, that's a given. The Book of Crossings, however, is
fleshing out new wrinkles in the work of Kevin Kastning and Sándor Szabó,
guitarists decidedly forever in rare form. The initial cut here, Vorspiel
even embeds a sense of playfulness not all that apparent in the back catalogue,
a vivacity that lifts the prevalently somber, albeit eternally exploratory,
refrains up into a new level. Then Narthex jangles the ears with abstract
wafts shining in profoundly lustrous cross beams of light and shadow, and we
recall what it was that hypnotized our oh-so-willing ears in the first place.
To Carthage Then I Came might be best indication of the more clearly
narrative structure of a lot of Crossings, possessing a very distinct
foreground in the opening quotation but one that submerges, re-emerges, and goes
through many shifts of emphasis. Too, with 21 chapters to this 72-minute 'book',
many many transitions occur, and Intarsia I is a segue to the darker and
more exotic Second Transversal, inhabited by staccato plectrum and
definedly angular arabesques, everything thence to the initially pacific
Verax, which slowly twists within itself.
For this release, a total of 8 different guitars was employed as well as piano
(highly unusual for Kevin), e-bow (just as singular), and Szabó's use of a
guzheng (Chinese zither). Strikingly, while Kastning employs the e-bow in
Carthage, Szabó wields his 16-string as though it were a combination of
guzheng and koto (you'll detect the true guzheng's distinctive tones elsewhere).
The perennial Towner/Abercrombie milieu is omnipresent in these cats, thank God,
but so is Kastning's love of classical structures ancient and modern, so while
the duo's work remains indefinable, it nonetheless possesses an abundance of
reference points. You just have to take them all from Mars, Jupiter, or
Piranesi. If that's disturbing, then just back slowly away from your computer
and turn on reruns of Hawaii Five-O instead, but if it's the sort of surreal
immersion you know you desperately need lest you go mad on this monkeyhouse
Earth………then why the hell are you wasting time reading my review???"
- FAME Magazine September 2012 (USA)
The
Book of Crossings
Kevin Kastning & Sandor Szabo
(GREYDISC 2012)
"This year 2012 has been
especially fruitful for the musician and composer Kevin Kastning. Now comes the
recent launch of his new work entitled "The Book of Crossings" with the great
Sándor Szabó. Issued by the GREYDISC RECORDS label, the album "The Book of
Crossings" contains twenty-one compositions written by Kevin Kastning
(14-strings Contraguitar, Alto 12-string guitar, bass-baritone 12-string,
baritone classical guitar, 12-string Octave guitar, Ebow, and piano) and Sándor
Szabó (classical guitar, 16-string guitar, guitar 10-string viola caipira and
guzheng). Hearing each of these pieces of music is a unique experience in this
extraordinarily beautiful instrumental virtuoso display. Recorded on March 23,
2012 in Madách Müvelodési Központ (Vac, Hungary), this album has been mixed and
mastered by Sándor Szabó at Tandem Records Experimental Studio (Hungary),
showing the use of 24-bit mastering, this outstanding quality, allowing sound to
give a harmonic richness that will leave you very surprised.
Furthermore, the admirable work of album art is the photographic work of artist
Chris Friel. The art is a success, offering an elegant and distinguished visual
appearance of the musical works. Some nebulae and chromatic textures in faded
ocher are symbolically presented to reflect this perfect trip to the mental
abyss where the entire record is stored in our memory. A source of musical
creativity inspired by the elusive haze of born-again experience, this.
We started hearing this wonderful album entering into the musicianship of Kevin
Kastning and Sándor Szabó in "Vorspiel," instrumental virtuosity to overwhelm
readers of Lux Athena Webzine and music lovers of impeccable musical
performances. A sensory emotion is continued in the beautiful composition
"Narthex," with the theme "First Transversal" the first walk through this
delightful melody divided into three sections of exquisite music throughout the
album. With "Arc I", the magic and energy of impregnation materially stimulates
our living spirit, making the theme "To Carthage Then I Came" in one of the most
captivating musical experiences on this album. "To Carthage Then I Came," pure
genius! An atmosphere that will surround, illuminated by the sacredness that
permeates the composition "Intarsia I," while the melodic take on a special
resonance in the "Second Transversal.” "Verax," the growing influence of the
authentic and what is inextricably tied to the first glimpse of the primitive.
In "Aliorsum I," this strong show of art and alert performing talent leads
directly to the essentials while enjoying the theme "Verus." Maintaining the
composition "Modus Novus I," that mysterious halo of sound that both attracts
and seduces us into the works written by these two great composers. For this
reason, the magnetic spell of philosophical testimony will be presented with the
theme "Intarsia II," leaving the air around us in an almost sacred realm. "Aliorsum
II" as a prelude to the existentially perfect inherited and can breathe in the
wonderful pristine purity of theme in "Intarsia III." Here, the incomparable
musical beauty of "Third Transversal" psychologically absorbs us by stimulating
our mental focus to be more receptive to sonic detail that gives life to the
"Arc II." "Arc II", an extraordinary musical composition! With this radiant soul
music still flying over our being, the magic of the extraordinary composition
"Intarsia IV" will take hold of us, being "Modus Novus II" the clever melodic
turn arranged to re-stimulate our minds to more expansive and complex
dimensions, making the issue "Veritas" in another of the most enjoyable
performances of this album. Finally, after the richness of sound that defines
the perfilamientos and definitions of "Fifth Pleochroism" and that floods our
being with the ambrosia of concentrated vital essence in "Nachspiel," the dark
night will be responsible for closing this sublime musical work created by
Sándor Szabó and Kevin Kastning. "The Book of Crossings", music, culture, and
intellectuality admirably integrated with these dazzling technical
interpretative performances. Enjoy it!"
-
Lux Atenea Magazine (SPAIN)
August 2012
"I think "The Book of Crossings" is your best yet with Sandor. The music really breathes, and is -to my ears- slightly infused with central European and eastern tonalities. Great work."
- Laurent Brondel (USA/FRANCE)
"The Book of Crossings" sounds again superb ! Great interplay and intriguing sounds, rhythms and melodies."
- Gilbert Isbin (BELGIUM)
"The Book of Crossings: Music at its best!"
- Ralf Gauck (GERMANY)
"Kevin Kastning's latest CD releases - An Illustrated Silence with Mark Wingfield and The Book Of Crossings with Sandor Szabo are each sonic masterpieces."
- Music Web Express 3000 magazine (USA)
"Dear Kevin,
The Book of Crossings with Sándor is the deepest one probably in my
opinion. It is like talking on a higher level than any poem could ever show
up... I'm really proud about helping you with the recordings again! It was a
very nice day and a good memory also to me.
I wish you all the best, good music and inspiration,"
- Roland Heidrich
(HUNGARY) (recording engineer for The Book of Crossings)
Kevin Kastning/ Sándor Szabó: The Book Of Crossings
"Does not matter from where we approach the topic, the final result will be the
same: that what Kevin Kastning and Sándor Szabó create in the acoustic guitar
scene that is the peak of the modern contemporary acoustic guitar music.
Listening to their latest album, one has the feeling that there is no way to any
higher levels. Then a new album arrives and we have to modify our previous
statement and we can step up to an even higher level and we can walk into the
eternity. The American and Hungarian guitar players and composers found each
other more than half a decade ago, and their first common work was the
Resonance in 2007. Then this album was
annually followed by others. The we came to August of this year and we can hold
the latest album the The Book Of Crossings in our hands. This is the
fifth album from the Kevin/Szabó guitar duo. The album as usual has been
released on the Greydisc Records in the USA.
People who never heard them live in concert or from recordings can imagine two
guitar players who go on the stage or into the studio with a single guitar. They
are mistaken because they use plenty of guitars and other instruments on
concerts and in studio, too in order to get the result they want. (They toured
twice in Hungary in larger towns and the audience could see their fantastic
instrument arsenal.) It is worth mentioning the instruments they used in The
Book Of Crossings. Sándor Szabó used his old 16-string nylon string guitar
with a special tuning, a 10-string Brazilian instrument called viola caipira
guitar, a Ziata classical guitar, a 21-string Chinese zither called the guzheng.
Kevin Kastning used his 14-string Contraguitar, a 12-string bass-baritone
guitar, a classical baritone guitar, 12-string octave guitar, e-bow, and a grand
piano. As we listen, their themes are played with the precision of a
brain-surgeon.
We can find certain themes on the album interpreting them from different aspects
like Arcs I and II, Intarsia, Aliorsum and Modus Novus.
The way the listener comes to its conclusion is very exciting as soon it goes
ahead in the pieces and merges into the depth of the music. The album contains
21 tracks but sometimes we can have the feeling this is a long one-piece album
with nice inner structures."
HiFi Portal
Magazine (HUNGARY)
The
Book of Crossings
Kevin Kastning & Sándor Szabó
“The instrumental array here comprises conventional as well as unorthodox, even
peculiar acoustic guitars including classical (nylon string), baritone
classical, 12-string bass-baritone, 12-string alto, 12-string octave, and
16-string guitars, 10-string viola capira, and 14-string Contraguitar, plus
Ebow, Guzheng, and piano. With them, Kevin Kastning and Sandor Szabo play in the
classical tradition: fingerstyle, performing their own, modernist compositions.
The extended range of some of these instruments adds a nice low end missing in
so much classical guitar music. The musical style includes spikey dissonances,
but is rooted in tonality, albeit tenuously at times. A clear point of reference
is Ralph Towner, especially with the combination of classical and 12-string and
other double-course (i.e., 14- and 16-string) guitars. Most of these works fall
in the range of much 20th century classical guitar music, often filtered through
ECM-style production. The music tends to be relatively safe: modern, with doses
of dissonance, without being off-putting. So, in very loose terms, more
Stravinsky than Stockhausen. At once challenging and pleasant.”
- Dean Suzuki
Progression
Magazine (USA) Summer 2012 issue