Kevin Kastning
36-string guitarist | composer

For Your Consideration

Partitas, Book 1

Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance

Intervallum
Jazz Instrumental Album

Triple Helix
Jazz Instrumental Album

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Kevin Kastning & Carl Clements

 Press Quotes

"Kastning and Clements are no newcomers to collaboration. If I’m counting correctly this is their seventh album working together, and I’m guessing — though I can’t be a hundred percent sure — that the seven tracks at hand were composed as they were created, thoroughly improvised as only these two outstanding musicians can do. While I can’t provide a lot of background information on the project, it seems to be a set of real time pieces where each player plays one instrument only, with no overdubbing of any kind, the result given to a more gentle sound overall, with moments where Kastning leads on his 24- and 29-string double contraguitars, his 30-string contra-alto guitar, and his 17- and 18-string sub-contra guitars, other times where Clements leads on his soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones, but more often where the two are composing in real time together, each supporting the other. One has to wonder how many hours of work went into these mysterious explorations, as well as how much of their work didn’t make the final cut — though it seems the two work together with telepathic instinct, Clements more often taking the lead due to the saxes being a single-note-at-a-time instrument, and Kastning often supporting with chords and structures the way only a guitar can do. But since there are only two players, who know each other’s style of playing well, there is always plenty of free space in their compositions, neverly overly dense with too much going on. Furthermore, Kastning is often occupying the bass registries while the Clement’s saxes are floating above it all in free melodic play. For listeners who require labels, I would have to call Partitas, Book 1 instrumental free-chamber jazz, not in the wild and crazy free-jazz sense, but in the free floating almost-ambient at times sense, truly melodic, magical, and beautiful at every turn."

- Exposé Magazine (US)

"Partita is a form of musical work ... a type of suite or concert suite is a cyclic form consisting of five or more movements" - this definition is given by Wikipedia. It was the partita that was chosen as the main form for their improvisational compositions by Kevin Kastning and Carl Clements. Moreover, in the title of the album, they made a significant addition: "Book 1". This means that new partitas from the duo of these two most interesting American musicians are waiting for us ahead.  these musicians have known each other well for a long time, suffice it to say that Partitas, Book 1 is their seventh joint album. Kevin and Carl came into the two sessions last winter fully armed in terms of a wealth of tools. Not only was he an excellent guitarist who had studied privately with Pat Metheny, but he was also the creator of a family of multi-stringed guitars, using five different instruments from his unique arsenal. Clements armed himself with the three most common saxophones, from soprano to tenor.   So, the combination of the baroque past and the jazz present in Partitas, Book 1 looks very organic, which makes the album one of the most interesting in the history of the collaboration between Kevin Kastning and Carl Clements."

- Jazz Square Magazine (RUSSIA)
 

"Clements glides effortlessly over Kastning's guitar lines, and the tonal contrast between the two keeps the album fresh."

-All About Jazz magazine (US)

 "For this guitar/sax duet, the gang widens the dreamscapes you've gotten accustomed to on previous releases and takes things to strange corners of your mind where incongruous things tend to cluster together and create new wholes. Solidly left leaning music, this really opens the mind to limitless possibilities. Another winner from these two with ease."

-- Midwest Record webzine (US) 

Kevin Kastning / Phil Grenadier / Bruno Raberg
Press Quotes

"The multinational collaboration consisting of Kevin Kastning, Phil Grenadier and Bruno Råberg are out with the album Intervallum, and experimental music is what the three musicians explore on this production. This is a low key and careful affair, where the most defining feature is a subtly brooding, otherworldly mood and atmosphere that is an ongoing trait throughout. Careful, melancholic laden saxophone textures float on top, with eerie, off kilter and occasionally dissonant and occasionally dramatic details delivered by Kastning's guitar combining into a kind of a twilight zone landscape, where a feeling of slight unreality is an ongoing presence. The bass adds wandering patterns, various percussion details and other more or less subtle details that in part support and in part supplement the sonic tapestries woven by the guitar and the saxophone here, and with all instrumentalists both complementing and contrasting each other in subtle manners, all depending on the part and the passage of the composition in question. I suspect that jazz will be the main form here as far as orientation is concerned, although my association goes towards a bit of an input from contemporary classical music too. Most of all this is a creation I suspect will have it's main appeal among those fond of a more off kilter, low key and at times minimalist run through a jazz flavored landscape, of the kind where expressive details are mainly carefully delivered and sometimes with a bit more of an expressive flair. If that is a notion that intrigues you, and landscapes with a bit of a brooding, otherworldly feel sounds like a good setting for such excursions, chances are good that you'll find this album to be quite the interesting experience."

- The Viking in the Wilderness (NORWAY)

"Silent Dimensions, the latest album by American multi-string guitarist Kevin Kastning. Kevin Kastning has released more than 50 albums, but this is a duo album with Swedish bassist Bruno Råberg. He is a pianist, guitarist, and instrument inventor who has invented many multi-string guitars, and his playing style is mainly improvisational music. Each song on this album is centered on improvisational performances. I feel that the guitar sound has a lot of fourth-degree harmonies overall, but perhaps because of that, the overall atmosphere continues to be unstable. These harmonies have a pleasant sound full of overtones unique to a guitar that is different from a piano. If you let yourself be immersed in these sounds for a long time, you will be filled with a strange sensation as if each sound seeps into your body, as if you are filled with a floating sensation and your body is melting into it. The interaction with Bruno Råberg on bass is also very dramatic, and if you listen to it after knowing Kevin's attention to the reaction speed of the guitar sound as mentioned above, you can see the fun of this kind of improvisational exchange again from a different angle. It's a very exciting and fascinating album."

- Jazz Tokyo (JAPAN)

"On Silent Dimensions, Kevin plays contra and subcontra guitars with 16, 24 and 36 strings. In case you are wondering this is an instrument of his own invention, and he studied at Berklee College of Music and was a student of Pat Metheny. Double bassist Bruno is a Swedish musician and band leader.  It all sounds very technical, doesn’t it? But some intriguing sounds are produced and for students of guitar in particular this will be a fascinating listen. It is not all about virtuosity and invention as ‘Transfigure Vanish 1’ shows: a haunting, repetitive bassline and interesting use of percussion (tapped bass I think) accompanying the ascending guitar notes in an atmospheric and beguiling piece."

- dimensions in sound and space (US)

Kevin Kastning & Sandor Szabo

 Press Quotes
 

 "In an interesting departure, Kastning this time occupies the piano stool while Sandor Szabo plays electric guitars and electric baritone guitars, continuing a series of Ethereal suites of music. This time there are five atmospheric and haunting pieces in an intriguing combination of instruments. Kevin’s .com website is a recommended destination to find out more about his music, and you can tell that the solo piano music of Keith Jarrett has had a profound influence on him. He also cites Bach, Bartok and Schoenberg as influences."

- Dimensions in Sound and Space (UK)

"Travelling through the worlds of jazz, new age, ambient, and modern classical this fifth album in Kevin Kastning and Sandor Szabo's Ethereal series is filled with lush orchestrations and unusual guitar voicings. Over the years Kastning has worked with various solo and chamber group instrumentations and recorded a variety of albums with guitarist Alex de Grassi, bassist Michael Manring, and others. Also, Kastning has collaborated with Alistair Hay of Emerald Guitars inventing and building the 36-string Double Contraguitar. This double neck instrument consists of two 18-string Contraguitars used in two different tunings. It provides an extended range and an unusual harmonic palette and has become one of Kastning's main instruments for both concerts and recordings."

"Otherworld, Kevin's 2015 solo album, was the No.1 album in the world on the iTunes Classical charts in September 2015. As a revered guitarist and celebrated acoustic guitar wizard, Kastning continues expanding as a guitar phenomenon."

-Mediamusic (US)

"Ethereal V is a relaxing ambient release that intrigues the senses with its non-pattern based passages. It is a perfect album for juicing one’s creativity as it goes to unusual places in a very pleasurable fashion. There are moments that remind me of Frippertronics, and others that delve into the mysterious side dipping a tow into the Avant Garde. The combination of his special acoustic guitar and elongated rolling tones opens this music into a free form world that takes one to alternate universes."

- Mediaversal (US)

"When the standard guitar has limited his musical expression, Kevin Kastning has invented his own instruments to extend the pitch range of the guitar. For Ethereal V, he plays the 15-string and 17-string Hybrid Extended Classical guitar accompanied by orchestrations from Sandor Szabo. This is the fifth chapter of Kevin’s Ethereal series and it furthers their expression of galactic improvisation. At times it is like a mystery movie soundtrack, an introspective piece that is suitable for meditation."

- O's Place Jazz Magazine (US)

 "This time his tenth collaboration with guitarist Sandor Szabo with the release of their new album entitled Nograd on the Greydisc label, shows that he and Sandor have never disappointed me.

"Adding the tension by creating these dangerous puzzle maps for the listener to walk through step by step, there are times that they combined the elements of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Lubos Fiser, Zdenek Liska, Gyorgy Ligeti, King Crimson, and Ottmar Liebert rolled into one. And some of these compositions can make you walk through the paintings of Jackson Pollock or walk through these spiral staircases that can take you into unknown locations. 
 As I’ve mentioned earlier, Kastning has never, ever disappointed me. And now it is time to pull both the curtains back and explore the world of Kevin Kastning and Sandor Szabo’s Nograd."

-- Music from the Other Side of the Room (US)

Kevin Kastning / Soheil Peyghambari /
Carl Clements

 Press Quotes

"Triple Helix from Kevin Kastning (36-string Double Contraguitar, 28-string Double Contraguitar, 18-string Contraguitar, 17-string Subcontraguitar) finds him again working with Carl Clements (Tenor, Alto, and Soprano saxophones), but for the first time he has also involved Iranian clarinetist Soheil Peyghambari (Bass Clarinet, B♭ clarinet).

Carl and Soheil easily swap leads, combine on harmonies, take breaks to let the other shine, and then under it is all is Kevin providing the depth and colour which makes the sound far broader and more intense. He also knows when his role is to sit back and let the others play alone, so much so that with every participant fully understanding the need for space it feels at times as if there is a fourth musician in the room whose role is to provide the silence which allows everything else to shine more brightly. Soheil has easily fitted into the duo, with Carl and Kevin giving him every opportunity to be a full musical contributor as opposed to an outsider and the result is fluid, compelling and intriguing. As with all of Kevin's albums, one never really knows what to expect apart from it will be interesting and fascinating and needs to be played on headphones and really listened to as opposed to becoming some background noise. By doing this one will be taken to a different musical world where musicianship and originality are valued, and that is certainly somewhere I wish to stay."

House of Prog Radio magazine (UK & NEW ZEALAND)

"Triple Helix is the first time these three players have collaborated together — hopefully there will be more in the not-too-distant future. For the six tracks on Triple Helix, Kastning plays 17-string subcontraguitar, 18-string contraguitar, 28-string double contraguitar, and 36-string double contraguitar; Clements plays tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones; and Peyghambari plays clarinet and bass clarinet. The gentle touch of the various guitars and multiple woodwinds definitely gives this endeavor a chamber feel, beautiful, soft, and eloquent, without any rough edges or sharp angles; the sounds flow all around the listener, offering a respite from any impending chaos, a time-out if you will. Gentle, colorful melodies follow one another, creations spun in real time by the three protagonists who have a natural and instinctive telepathic ability to create music on the spot (perhaps some basic planning preceded the performances), though everything goes down so smoothly one has to wonder if perhaps there were some charts involved. Titles like “Orthagonal Matrix,” “Molecular Folded,” and album closer “Scalene Torsion” don’t really offer much in the way of ideas as to what they might sound like, but be reassured that every tasty twisty turn along this path of never-repeating ideas goes far to soothe the soul."

- Exposé Magazine (US)
 

"Unique and innovative are adjectives rightfully used to describe the music of Triple Helix which could just as easily be classified as modern classical as jazz and all points in-between. I would describe the music as more of a sonic rather than melodic listening experience, that is akin to a series of six tone poems, Clements employing alto, soprano and tenor saxes, Peyghambari bass and Bb clarinets, important nuances in widening the musical palette in addition to the four possibilities offered by four contraguitars varying from 17 to 36 strings. The synergy between the musicians can be heard throughout an engaging album, creating a natural ambience that will reward multiple listens: the exchanges between the clarinet and sax on ‘Second Chirality’ to Kastning’s sympathetic guitar undertow being as good an example as any if a sample track is needed."

 - Dimensions in Sound and Space  (SCOTLAND)

About the Artist

Kevin Kastning is an American guitarist, composer, and musical instrument inventor. 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 50 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 2024 album releases were featured on a show dedicated to his music on the radio program "Parallel Universes" in Spain in July 2024.

He is based in Maine.

Artist Website