Kevin Kastning
36-string guitarist | composer

For Your Consideration

Interchange One
Jazz Instrumental Album

Unreal City
Jazz Instrumental Album

Listen on:

Listen on:

Listen on:

Kevin Kastning / Paul Wertico
Press Quotes

"I was quite happy to be able to give the entire album a listening session.
Spontaneously composed, "Interchange One" is a beautiful sonic adventure.
It's remarkable how their sounds intertwine."

- United Mutations (UK)

"This is the first collaboration between Kevin and drummer extraordinaire Paul Wertico who will always be celebrated for being a long-time member of the Pat Metheny Group with whom he won seven Grammy Awards. Here Kevin provides 30-string Contra-Baritone guitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar, 26-string Double Sub-Contraguitar, 24-string Double Sub-Contraguitar and Paul acoustic drums and cymbals (featuring the Wertico Ride), prepared drumset and talking drum. Wertico has appeared on hundreds of recordings, is Associate Professor of Jazz & Contemporary Music Studies at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, and conducts drum clinics worldwide, as well as releasing numerous critically acclaimed recordings, and also authored the groundbreaking drum instructional book, ‘Turn The Beat Around’.
On this collaboration he often brings a very busy approach, while Kevin is more laid back, and the two styles are very contrasting in nature. It works best when Kevin is more upbeat, but when he is slowing down in styles, I find that to my ears Paul is not reacting in the same manner, so although this does feel like a collaboration as opposed to a clashing of performers, it is not as stable or complete as most of Kevin’s recordings. Given that Paul worked with Metheny for nearly two decades I did have very high expectations, but for me this release is interesting as opposed to essential. It is fascinating of course but is not one to which I would suggest for a newcomer to Kevin’s style, and of the four albums he has already released this year, this was the one I found most difficult to get inside."

- Progressor (Uzbekistan)

"Kevin Kastning is the American musician who plays guitars with 24, 26, and even up to 30 strings—or more! Once or twice a year, he releases an album in a duo format with another musician. For this project, he invited Chicago-based drummer Paul Wertico to join him. Wertico plays acoustic drums, cymbals, prepared drums, and the East African talking drum (or *tama*). His credits include, among others, a stint with the Pat Metheny Group from 1983 to 2001.

Their album, *Interchange One*, is a seven-part suite in which percussion and guitars take turns playing both melodic and rhythmic roles. There are no grand lyrical flights of fancy here, but rather driving rhythms, unexpected melodies, and a remarkable capacity to surprise us."

- Radio Air Libre (Belgium)

"When two brilliant musicians meet up, they create amazing music that last for decades. Resulting into two albums in the making such creativity has no limit with them. This first one starts with the imaginary jazz music only can bring in the music universe.
While they are may instruments available, the most notable being the neck, ( like a guitar but with two sides you play with both hands taping). Kevin Kastning, (Alex de Grassi, Michael Manring, Mark
Wingfield, Carl Clements, Sandor Szabo, and many others) has decided a seventh string wasn’t enough so he created his own double neck one with 36 strings.
The instrument is taking the guitar part with the neck one, making it the biggest guitar ever made for a musician. He can then compose many diverse sound and arrangements, coming from Berklee College Music in Boston. He has learnt all the possibilities music sound can create.

Paul Wertico (Pat Metheny Group, David Bowie, Kurt Elling, and Paul Winter, and many others), joined this crazy project to add his craft to the genius guitar music he felt matching perfectly his own creativity and sound.

Both have released albums on their own and the ideas that emerge from those creative minds exploded into more mind blowing songs. 

The covers are just as the music, calling you into an imaginary world.

A must-have masterpiece for the ears 100/100."

- The Metal Mag (France)
 

Kevin Kastning

 Press Quotes
 

"Kevin Kastning, master of the multi string guitar, is about to release two new albums: "Codex I" and "Codex II".
Both albums feature Kevin on 30-string Contra-baritone guitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar, 26-string Double Sub-contraguitar, 24-string Double Sub-contraguitar, and 6-string guitar.
The result is astonishing.
Beautiful timbres and layered soundscapes, exuding a sense of wonderment and peace of mind."

- United Mutations (UK)

"Those who have been following Kevin Kastning for any period of time will know that most of his recordings are collaborative efforts featuring other performers, sometimes on guitars but as often on woodwinds, bass, trumpet, piano, percussion, and more. For the two releases at hand — which could have been a single release save for the capacity of the compact disc medium — he goes it alone for a series of tracks performed live in the studio without overdubs playing a number of his low-register double-necked custom made guitars: 24-string Double Sub-contraguitar, 26-string Double Sub-contraguitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar, and the 30-string Contra-baritone guitar, along with a regular six-string guitar.

For these recordings he is playing the two necks of whatever guitar he is playing simultaneously, one hand on each of the necks, offering multiple lines and harmonic structures that would not be possible otherwise.

The recordings are such that such that the left neck of each instrument is heard in the left channel and the right neck in the right channel, thus providing a unique stereo image best experienced on a set of quality headphones, providing further clarity as to how these compositions are constructed. Without them, or a quality speaker system with adequate separation, the result may not always have the appropriate clarity to provide a good understanding of what’s being played, especially when both necks of the guitar are dwelling in the lowest registers. What’s not entirely clear is what separates the material on Codex I from that on Codex II — there are seven tracks on the former and six on the latter, the first five-or-so pieces on Codex I are all in the very lowest registers, then the guitar is changed out for another that features more high end; whether that’s the instrument itself or the way it’s being played, I cannot determine, and really it’s unimportant in the grander scheme, as the entirety of the set (one disc after the other) is fascinating enough to hold the listener spellbound from beginning to end."

- Exposé Magazine (US)
 

“But wait, there’s more!” (as they say on those annoying TV ads). Not content with releasing ‘Codex I’, we also get ‘Codex II’, released on the same date. Many of the pieces are connected to the first album, at least in title, and one wonders if Kevin had thought about releasing this as a double CD set instead of two separate albums, given one is 45 minutes in length and the other 40. There is also a separate argument of possibly cutting some material and releasing it as a single disc, but I am truly glad he did not as there is something very special here. The concept and approach are the same here as on ‘Codex I’, so much of the same commentary and descriptions still apply, but I discovered there is something “more” about this album.

I must confess I am not sure if it is just falling under the spell of Kevin having always played this after listening yet again to the first one, or if this one is actually that bit more special, but when playing this time stands still, and all that exists are the notes, nothing else matters. It is massively complex, hugely challenging to play, yet for the intricacies there is still plenty of room for space and reverb, ensuring the dynamics are kept clear and contrasting as we are taken on a voyage of discovery.

This is a hugely compelling album, not only on a technical and skill level, but very much on the musical level as somehow

Kastning is creating otherworldly sounds and compositions which totally make sense, played on instruments he created, taking us to new levels of consciousness.

It is as if most painters only use shades of grey, but he is in technicolour which allows him to bring different worlds to life in ways others can only imagine.

Having listened to many of his albums, solo and with others, there is no doubt that Codex II is my favourite to date, absolutely essential."

(6 out of 6 stars)

- Progressor (Uzbekistan)

Kevin Kastning / Phil Grenadier

 Press Quotes

"Guitarist Kevin Kastning seems to never give himself a respite. Here he is already back after the recent 2+2, published in May. Prior to that, he partnered with drummer Paul Wertico on Interchange One, released in March. A steady pace of production that perfectly illustrates the inexhaustible creativity of the American musician.

It is with the trumpeter, conductor and professor at the Berklee College of Music, Phil Grenadier that he collaborates this time on Unreal City, second album bringing together the two men after In Visible Ascent, released in 2024.
In four tracks, the duo takes us into a slow and measured musical dream, where the trumpet, whose phrasing is reminiscent of that of Miles Davis, often takes the ascendancy on Kevin Kastning's guitars.

The latter, including the famous 36-string Double Contraguitar designed by Kevin Kastning himself, shape hallucinated and hypnotic atmospheres, their sounds evoking in turn a harp or a harpsichord. A wealth of stamps that frequently gives the impression of hearing a much more extensive set than this duo yet reduced to its simplest expression.
The whole, halfway between improvisation and carefully thought out composition, works wonderfully. The musicians listen to each other, respond and complement each other with a remarkable fluidity, going from a delicate sequence to a sudden flood of notes without ever breaking the balance of their dialogue. This ability to alternate restraint and intensity with such ease gives the album an unusual force of fascination.

With Unreal City, Kevin Kastning and Phil Grenadier achieve a first-class collaboration, as immersive as it is inspired. It remains only to be hoped that the two musicians will renew the experience in the future."

- Prog ET+ magazine (France)

Announcing In Visible Ascent, the new Greydisc Records album from Kevin Kastning (US) and Phil Grenadier (US) is a real privilege to us and the 2nd time that we have a pleasure to face the incredible music universe that Kevin’s Duo concepts are. Here we have a rare opportunity to listen to two very distinctive voices, which approach the air with very specific pace and the sense of space.

This is their first album together, and is the beginning of an ongoing series of album projects. This pairing of instruments provides a unique palette for these two new compositions for 36-string Double Contraguitar and Trumpet. Kevin and Phil have an immediate artistic connection which can be heard in both of these modern compositions.

Two new compositions of advanced and symphonic compositional scale, which constitute this album, are not only pointing into a new direction but also exploring the different aspects of the sonoric sensitivity and capability to respond to what comes next. After all, despite of the expanded framework, there are still just two instruments and two individuals behind them.

- G Point Audio (UK)

"For this first collaboration between Kevin Kastning and Phil Grenadier, the duo moves in a dreamy and meditative direction, Kastning playing exclusively his 36 string double contraguitar, and Grenadier on trumpet, a combination that is suited perfectly for this kind of outcome; sparsely played chords on the guitar (and often bass patterns) create a majestic backdrop for Grenadier’s ever-soloing trumpet, a gentle abduction that creates at once a feeling of shimmering beauty and an exquisite solitude of sorts. ... the two lengthy tracks at hand are completely improvised on the spot, eliciting that emotion of loneliness like wandering through a warm forest in a half-dream state.

Both players leave plenty of room for the other to spin their magical spell; sometimes one will go completely quiet while the other makes a statement, like a call and response between the two players, especially on the 31-minute epic “A Location Marked by Stars” with its many sections and frequent diversions.

Grenadier’s trumpet is soft but bold, always commanding the listener’s attention, while Kastning’s guitars weave in and out of view, sometimes going high, sometimes low into bassy regions while the trumpet carries on in the foreground. The considerably shorter “The Wind Said Especially Now” (still a whopping fifteen-plus minutes) has many of the hallmarks of the lead track,... All taken, In Visible Ascent is like no Kastning related project before it, and the notes say that more collaborative album projects between the duo are underway."

- Exposé Magazine (US)

About the Artist

Kevin Kastning is an American guitarist, composer, musical instrument inventor, and a recording artist for Greydisc Records. He has designed and performs on such instruments as the 36-string Double Contraguitar, 30-string Contra-Alto guitar, 17-string Hybrid Extended Classical guitar, 15-string Extended Classical guitar, the 16-string Contraguitar, the 17-string Contraguitar, 12-string soprano guitar, and 24-string Double Baritone guitar. He has recorded over 60 albums for Greydisc Records and other labels, and his music is featured on radio and media worldwide. He has been featured in such magazines as Guitar Player, Jazziz, The Perfect Sound, Progression, and many more.

Kevin's eight 2026 album releases were featured on a show entirely dedicated to his music on the radio program "Parallel Universes" in Spain in July 2026.
 

He is based in Maine.

Artist Website