The July 9 2026 episode of Madrid, Spain's Universos Paralelos radio show was entirely devoted to my 2026 album releases.

You can listen to the show here.

The following is a transcript of the July 9 2026 broadcast.

Welcome to Universos Paralelos! Our musical discovery session begins here on the Onda Verde dial, 107.9 FM in Madrid, also at radiopra.blogspot.com.es, broadcasting from Nava, Asturias, the cider region, and of course, always on our blog and podcast at www.universos-paralelos.com. We're also featured on the Esferajazz.com platform and on our own Telegram channel, which you can subscribe to completely free of charge. Each week, you'll receive both the blog post with comprehensive information on everything we're playing and listening links to recommended albums, as well as the program itself in high-quality MP3 format, so you can download, collect, and enjoy it on your favorite device.

We begin today our final edition of this 31st season, which has been thrilling here at Universos Paralelos, and we're putting an end to it with a blast, a special dedicated to one of our favorite musicians, a musician who enjoys his own language, his own musical concept, his own dark beauty, and who has also been sharing his work with us for many years. If you heard that first track that played, you'll have immediately realized that we're talking about Maestro Kevin Kastning, a splendid and absolutely innovative guitarist who was a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston and later studied privately with none other than Pat Metheny himself. He has composed more than 300 pieces for different ensemble configurations, and his discography exceeds 50 albums. He is a completely established musician and, as I said, with his own musical concept, even with his own instruments designed specifically for him.

We kick off today's edition with what is our first album to explore by Kevin Kastning. As you know, he's a very prolific artist. We had planned our albums for the first half of 2026, from January to June, and had selected six tracks from his last six albums. But the whirlwind of releases Kevin Kastning is currently involved in has overwhelmed us again, and we have two more albums to premiere and share with you all. They just arrived last week, at the beginning of July, so that makes eight premieres, eight recommendations we have to share and discover with you from Maestro Kevin Kastning. Four of them are solo guitar albums, a format he last explored in 2018, and we've began today's edition with the first album to explore, Codex I, which was released at the beginning of the year.

It's his seventh solo album, and it's a new solo guitar work with a new recording and performance concept to discover. The album was released on January 26, 2026, and features a tremendous array of double contrabaritone and double subcontraguitars. The majority of his instruments, at least in this series of recordings called Codex, are double-neck guitars, and he writes he's been working on a new way of recording. The compositions in the Codex series, which at the beginning of the year comprised two volumes and with these July releases now has four, are quite complex compositions that involve new guitar techniques. Each piece was recorded live in a single performance and a single take. There are no re-recordings or edits, and his technique is such that he's playing his double-neck guitars with one hand on each neck—that is, using a percussive, tapping technique, in guitarist terms, which facilitates polyphony, multiple lines, and harmonic structures that wouldn't be possible otherwise. He also tells us that the recording setup is directly in stereo and that each double-neck instrument has been recorded so that the left neck is in the left stereo channel, and the right neck is in the right channel. Therefore, listening with headphones is highly recommended, because you'll hear exactly what Kevin Kastning would hear playing—that is, each guitar neck sounding on a different side. This recording technique is used throughout all four volumes of Codex, both in the first two, which we're about to premiere, and in the last two, which will close this special program.

I can already tell you that the program will be considerably longer than usual, so our colleagues at the radio stations have our permission to cut to the next program whenever they deem it necessary. We're going to extend our runtime and fully enjoy this final edition of Universos Paralelos.

We opened the program with Kevin Kastning's Codex Volume 1, his first solo guitar album since 2018. Some time ago, we also played a very notable album here on the show: Otherworld, released in 2015, which reached number one on iTunes in September of that year. In this case, he presents a series of improvised constructions with distinct characteristics, and in fact, when the structure or way of working on a piece relates to others in the project, he numbers them. Today, as the first piece of this special, we listened to track number 7, which closes Codex I, titled Structure 2. Structure pieces are more percussive and have a more defined rhythmic structure. Incipit pieces are a mix of percussion and silence or rubato, and there are also other pieces, such as Arcana, which are entirely melodic in a single line, with little to no polyphony. Each time a structure, a way of conceiving a piece, is similar, it is numbered, hence the name Structure 2 for the piece with which we opened today's program.

We will continue with his next album, Codex number 2, which was released on the same date as Codex I, January 26th. Codex 3 and 4 were released on July 6th. The first two volumes date from a single recording session, or a series of sessions, that took place in the summer of 2025, and Codex 3 and 4, which will be played at the end of the program, were recorded in the autumn of last year. Codex 2 is his eighth solo album, and we're going to listen to a very special piece that doesn't correspond to, or at least isn't part of, any of the four Codex series. It has a very special atmosphere, with a strong emphasis on silence and space, depicting a temple. The piece is titled Sanctuary 1, and it evokes a sense of majesty and also spiritual contemplation. We're going to premiere this Codex 2 by Kevin Kastning by listening to this second track, titled Sanctuary 1. We continue enjoying Kevin Kastning's most recent discography here at Universos Paralelos.

< Playing Sanctuary 1 >

We were listening to Sanctuary 1, which is the second track of this second volume of the Codex series, released in January 2026. I chose this piece because it doesn't have an exact correspondence with any series like Structure or Arcana. In this case, it's a unique piece with a very special character. At the beginning, there was a lot of silence and space, followed by those first chords reminiscent of a church bell. It's a very special work and a very personal concept, with its unique way of recording double-neck guitars, one neck in the left channel and the other in the right. For those of you who don't know him, Kevin Kastning has his own line of instruments crafted for him by the Irish brand Emerald. The entire instrument is made of carbon fiber, the only material that could withstand the tremendous stress he puts on them. Some are contraguitars with 30 strings paired in twos or threes, meaning the tension on the necks and the instrument's structure is immense. These guitars are played almost vertically, with a pointer resting on the floor. The truth is, like the rest of his musical vision and his way of communicating it, they are absolutely special and unique to him.

With this, we conclude this series of the first two albums called Codex, released in January 2026, and we're going to move forward in time. We're going through Kevin Kastning's albums from this first half of the year in chronological order of release, and we're going to listen to Across Tall Rain, which is the name of the new project by the duo formed by Kevin Kastning with the splendid double bassist Bruno Råberg, a Swedish-born who emigrated to the USA in 1981 and teaches at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, directed by Danilo Pérez. His collaboration with Kevin Kastning already has several albums released and proves to be very special and dynamic, contributing with many resources: percussion with the double bass body, bowing, and other techniques that he brings to his duets with Kevin Kastning, and the result is very unique and interesting. They've been collaborating for two years, since Silent Dimensions, their first album as a duo, in addition to their trio album Intervallum, which also featured trumpeter Phil Grenadier, who will also have a very special role in this season finale of Universos Paralelos.

For now, let's explore Kevin Kastning's new collaboration with Bruno Råberg, Across Tall Rain, and focus on one of the longest tracks on the album. It exemplifies everything we'll find throughout this new recording, released on February 24, 2026. Here, Kevin Kastning plays double 36-string contraguitars, a 16-string contraguitar—his usual arsenal—along with Bruno Råberg's acoustic double bass. All the compositions are collaborative and were recorded without overdubs at Kevin Kastning's studio in York County, Maine, on December 9, 2023. It was mixed and mastered by the Hungarian maestro Sándor Szabó, who regularly handles this work for many of Kevin Kastning's recordings at his Tandem studio in Vac, Hungary. Let's listen to this work now with track number 3. It's called Dark Branches Faster, and this is what Across Tall Rain, the new album by Kevin Kastning and Bruno Råberg, sounds like, here on Universos Paralelos.

< Playing Dark Branches Faster >

Tremendously electrifying, intense, creative… very powerful. Dark Branches Faster, this third track, is the longest piece in the new collaboration between Kevin Kastning and master Swedish double bassist Bruno Råberg, who, as you've heard, not only contributes pizzicato and bow to his playing in this improvisation, but you've also heard percussion with drumsticks, creating a tension that barely dissipates until the very end of the piece. Kevin Kastning and Bruno Råberg undoubtedly share a very special chemistry and continue their collaboration with this album, released on February 24, 2026. Kevin Kastning plays, among other instruments, double contraguitars, and Bruno Råberg plays the double bass on this second duet album. It's a true pleasure to share this duo project, which continues to evolve over the years, with this new album, Across Tall Rain.

Now I'd like to take a moment here to remind you that all the material we're going to listen to today is available on Kevin Kastning's Bandcamp page. The digital albums are quite affordable and worth buying on the first Friday of each month when the platform donates its commissions to independent artists and labels. This entire discography is available at Kevincastning.bandcamp.com, and in this week's blog post, you'll find all eight albums accessible along with eight links to access their Bandcamp pages and listen to them directly there, including Across Tall Rain by Kevin Kastning and Bruno Råberg. This album was mixed and mastered by Sándor Szabó, achieving the excellent sound he usually delivers in his studio.

We're continuing with Kevin Kastning's new discography, and now comes what is undoubtedly the surprise of the year. A new stage begins, a new duet collaboration that is already developing with other projects in addition to the one we're premiering today: Kevin Kastning's duet with Paul Wertico, the former drummer of the Pat Metheny Group. This is quite an unprecedented collaboration because, apart from his work with Hungarian percussionist Balazs Major, there haven't been any regular collaborations with percussionists, much less with a drummer. In this case, a new line of work has opened up with Interchange One, the title of Kevin Kastning's duet album with Paul Wertico, a truly remarkable work that was recorded remotely.

Paul Wertico was a member of the Pat Metheny Group from 1983 to 2001 and has worked with a multitude of musicians, primarily from the Chicago area, where he lives, such as Kurt Elling, Paul Winter, and even David Bowie. He is an associate professor of Jazz and Contemporary Music at Roosevelt University's School of Performing Arts, conducts drum clinics worldwide, and has received numerous awards, including Chicagoan of the Year, bestowed by the city's authorities.

We're going to explain how Kevin Kastning and Paul Wertico's Interchange One came about, because it's a long-distance collaboration. Kevin Kastning proposed this project to Paul Wertico. He sent him a pre-recorded track, and the drummer played it and listened to the first few seconds. He immediately stopped it, restarted the track, and began recording over it, responding to what he heard in real time—in other words, the response was completely instinctive. This is explained in Kevin Kastning's liner notes and Paul Wertico's own words. He listened to roughly the first 30 seconds and decided to record his drums over that track without having heard the entire piece at all. He sent the results, and they concluded that there was a special chemistry between them and developed this concept of a 'double current,' similar to water flows that can exist independently, coexist, merge, or even collide sonically. It's also based on the concept of organic time, time that flows naturally, and inorganic time, that is, time marked by the metronome. So their musical conversation was primarily about listening to the other person speaking through their instrument and reacting to what they felt or heard with their own instrument. They completed 14 tracks, he mixed his drums, sent the result back, and then Kevin Kastning did the joint mix and mastering.

This is how Interchange One was born, which will be followed by Interchange Two, to be released in August. As I said, Kevin Kastning's release schedule is practically impossible to keep up with, at least with the programming structure we have here at Universos Paralelos, but it's worth taking a break now and then to listen to all his new releases, as we're doing today. Interchange Two, the second part of this collaboration, will be released on August 4, 2026, so we'll be checking it out in the second half of the year. For now, let's explore the results of this Interchange One, this first collaboration with this wonderful surprise. As I mentioned earlier, Kevin Kastning was a private student of Pat Metheny, and that seems to be the link that has finally brought Kevin Kastning together with Paul Wertico, who was the drummer for the Pat Metheny Group for many years. Let's premiere this recording, Interchange One. All the tracks are titled Adjacent Flowing Streams, and we're going to focus on one of the most interesting pieces. Although they're all interesting, I have the feeling that from the first tracks to the last, the relationship loosens up a bit more, becoming more agile and organic. Let's listen to track number 6, the penultimate track on the album, titled Adjacent Flowing Streams 6. This is what Interchange One sounds like; this is what Kevin Kastning and Paul Wertico sound like for the first time here, on Universos Paralelos.

< Playing Adjacent Flowing Streams 6 >

There were those currents, in this case musical ones, demonstrating in a completely practical way what maestro Paul Wertico said about this conception, this way of perceiving music, these currents that can coexist independently, can unite, or can even collide. We also heard practically all of these modalities in this piece, which is quite paradigmatic of what you can find, especially at the end of the recording. We were listening to the sixth track, the penultimate of the seven on this Interchange One, which is the first collaboration between maestro Paul Wertico, none other than the former drummer of the Pat Metheny Group, and Kevin Kastning.

Here, Kevin Kastning plays contrabaritone guitar, double contraguitar, and double sub-contraguitar, among others, and Paul Wertico plays acoustic drums, cymbals, and also the talking drum, which also appears in the recordings they made, as I mentioned, one on top of the other, reacting almost instantaneously. The album was released on March 31st of this year, 2026, and this is a sample of what they've achieved in this first recording, or rather, these first two recordings, because Interchange Two is coming out in August.

Imagine if, instead of recording remotely, they had been able to see each other and react and communicate physically. This is a completely new addition to Kevin Kastning's discography and work. This first duet album with drums will surely be followed by others, because, as you know, Kevin Kastning establishes very long lasting relationships with his collaborators, as is the case with what's coming next, which is none other than the work called 2 + 2, the next stop on the long journey of Kevin Kastning and British guitarist Mark Wingfield.

The album is titled 2 + 2 because each composition, each piece, is made up of four parts, with each musician contributing two parts to each composition. In other words, two musicians, two parts of each composition: 2 + 2.

Kevin Kastning plays guitars in this case, mostly acoustic, along with contrabaritone, double contraguitar, and double sub-contraguitar, while Mark Wingfield plays electric guitars, expanding the palette considerably. Here, I get the impression that there are indeed overdubs, as there are also soundscapes, backgrounds, landscapes painted with Mark Wingfield's electric guitar. This is something new compared to Kevin Kastning's recent collaborations with Mark Wingfield, which were relatively minimalist, featuring only two guitars. In this case, you'll find a broader and more interesting timbral spectrum to get lost in, or to immerse yourself in. For now, let's take a first bite of this duet, this new collaboration between Kevin Kastning and Mark Wingfield, and we'll start with one of the tracks that I liked most almost from the first listen: the second track, titled "2 + 2, Part 2." This is how Kevin Kastning and Mark Wingfield sound in 2 + 2, here at Universos Paralelos.

< Playing 2 + 2, Part 2 >

The tension between Kevin Kastning and Mark Wingfield was tremendous, with successive re-recordings of both Kastning's acoustic guitars and Wingfield's electric guitars and soundscapes wrapping the recording. These re-recordings featured calls, responses, counterpoints, and all sorts of messages between the two musicians, creating an almost unbearable tension that lasted until the end of track number 2, "2 + 2, Part 2." This was the piece we chose to introduce you to 2 + 2, the latest work under their own names by the two masters, American Kevin Kastning and British Mark Wingfield.

The album was released on May 26, 2026, and was recorded in several sessions at Kevin Kastning's Traumwald North studio and Mark Wingfield's Heron Island studios in England. The mixing and mastering were done by Wingfield in England, and the compositions are a joint effort, as is the cover art, which both artists created for this 2 + 2, a relatively new work compared to their previous career, which spans many years and numerous recordings.

We continue with this special season finale of Universos Paralelos. We've already completed our usual hour of broadcast, and from now on we enter bonus territory. We still have much to listen to and much to discover in the discography of this first half of 2026 from maestro Kevin Kastning. We finished with this duet with Mark Wingfield, and now we're going to delve into one of my favorite projects, or practically my absolute favorite, of Kevin Kastning's recent work: this collaboration with jazz trumpeter Phil Grenadier. This Unreal City, as their new recording is called, is a true marvel. It's a relatively short recording, just over thirty minutes, but the result is impressive. It's practically a sonic journey to immerse yourself in and experience a story told by that dark, urban sound, the sensations produced by the combination of Kevin Kastning's acoustic guitars and Phil Grenadier's incredible trumpet. The combination is very interesting because Kevin Kastning provides the polyphony and harmony, and the contrast is marked by that monophonic instrument, the trumpet, whether muted or unmuted, with an impressive phrasing and narrative style that truly adapts to the guitarist's language, while maintaining its connection to jazz, and leaving that feeling of contemporary urban melancholy that is striking.

Without a doubt, this album is my favorite of all the recordings Kevin Kastning has released in the first half of the year, and it recaptures the feeling of previous works with master Phil Grenadier, both Intervallum, a trio with Bruno Råberg, and his debut, In Visible Ascent, which we also premiered in a special program here on Universos Paralelos. Let's get to know Unreal City without further ado. Today we're not going to set any limits and we're going to listen to the longest track on the album, one of the four it has. There's a 4:45 piece, another of almost 4 minutes, another of 10 minutes, and this essential track, this improvisation that's a journey through memory, which is track number 4. We're going to enjoy Unreal City, the new collaboration between Kevin Kastning and Phil Grenadier, released very recently on June 23, 2026. We'll find Kevin Kastning with a double 36-string contraguitar, another of 24, another of 30, and another contraguitar of 18 strings, and Phil Grenadier on trumpet and flugelhorn. The combination is incredible, and we're going to focus on the track that closes the album, this amazing piece of almost 16 minutes and 20 seconds. This is Unreal City, and this is how Kevin Kastning and Phil Grenadier sound on Memory Passage Echo, here at Universos Paralelos.

<Playing Memory Passage Echo>

This track, which closes Unreal City, is both impressive and breathtaking. It's the last recording Kevin Kastning and trumpeter Phil Grenadier made together. What a display of communication, synergy, and respect—including the silence to allow the other musician's instrument to shine in its full glory—and a spectacular, pristine, crystal-clear sound, achieved by Kevin Kastning at his studio in Traumwald North, York County, Maine, USA, on April 28, 2024, where this sesión was recorded. The final sound, mixing, and mastering were done by Sándor Szabó at his Tandem Studios in Vac, Hungary, and the cover art is by Russian artist George Korunov, who has illustrated most of Kevin Kastning's recent discography. Without a doubt, Kevin Kastning's Unreal City with Phil Grenadier is one of the highlights of his entire discography, in my opinion, and my favorite recent work. I find it a unique combination, and the chemistry is palpable; at no point does this nearly 16-and-a-half-minute piece drags or feels like asking for a break. Both the album and the collaboration between Kevin Kastning and Phil Grenadier are truly magic. Grenadier is a renowned trumpeter in the jazz world, as you know, brother of bassist Larry Grenadier, and an incredible musician in his own right on both the trumpet and the flugelhorn.

We're approaching the final stretch of this special season finale of Universos Paralelos, and we're going to do so by discussing these two very recent albums. These last two volumes of Codex, from the series that began at the start of the year (at least with the summer 2025 sessions), were released just a few days ago. These last two Codex releases correspond to recordings made in the autumn of 2025. The working method and concept remain the same: the kind of structures that are repeated across different volumes, numbered in various sequences, like Construction or Structure, for example, which we heard in the first Codex. I also mentioned at the beginning of the program those pieces called Arcana, which have a special touch because they are practically single-line pieces, without polyphony. These are melodies based on Kevin Kastning's musical conception, played in a single line, like the trumpet of the maestro Phil Grenadier, but in this case, just solo guitar.

From this Codex 3, we'll be focusing on one of the Arcana tracks, specifically number 3, which is track 6 on this Codex. We're going to delve into the last two solo guitar volumes by Kevin Kastning to reach the end of this special and also of season 31. Here's Arcana 3. This is how Codex 3 by Kevin Kastning sounds on Universos Paralelos.

< Playing Arcana 3 >

There it was, playing that interpretation of single-line melodies that Kevin Kastning has named Arcana, of which there are a few throughout the four volumes of Codex, in the two we premiered at the beginning of the program and in these two that are providing the epilogue to this final edition of season 31 of Universos Paralelos. We're going to say goodbye now. It's been a pleasure sharing these 31 seasons with all of you. If you'd like, we'll be back on September 17th from 5 to 6 PM on Onda Verde, 107.9 FM in Madrid, and from 3 to 4 PM on Radiopra.com from Nava, in Asturias, the cider country, and of course, always on our blog and our podcast at www.universos-paralelos.com. You know you can find us both among the new releases on the Esferajazz.com platform and on our own Telegram channel, which you can subscribe to completely free of charge. Each week, you'll receive the blog post with comprehensive information on everything we're playing, as well as listening links to our recommended albums and, of course, the program itself in high-quality MP3 format so you can download, collect, and enjoy it on your favorite device.

We're going to say goodbye for now; were taking a break until mid-September. We'll leave you with the latest volume of the Codex series by maestro Kevin Kastning, featuring his unique approach and recording technique with one neck on the left channel and another on the right. We're going to focus on one of the more varied pieces, because it includes percussion, rhythmic changes (or the absence of rhythm), and this piece has a very interesting tension. Furthermore, it's the track that welcomes us to the final album, the last volume, number 4 in Kevin Kastning's Codex series. Today we listened to four solo guitar albums from him, one track from each. We also thoroughly enjoyed his duet series, both with Bruno Råberg and that huge surprise with Pat Metheny Group former drummer Paul Wertico, as well as with his old friend Mark Wingfield and that incredible combo he forms with Phil Grenadier—a formidable duo. I hope you enjoyed this farewell edition of season 31 of Universos Paralelos. See you in September, be good!

I