muzycy:
Alex Ward-electric guitar

Editor's info:
Frames is the debut solo guitar album from composer/improviser/performing musician Alex Ward. The path leading to the making of this album extended through many years, during which Ward's approach to the guitar in general and solo playing in particular became solidified. Up until his mid-twenties, Ward was known primarily as a clarinettist and his involvement in improvised music was almost exclusively as a reeds player. During this period Ward was also playing guitar, but as a composition and performance tool in the context of rock bands (most notably Camp Blackfoot). In 2000, Ward's long-term collaborator Steve Noble encouraged him to start using the guitar in free improvisation, leading to the formation of their trio N.E.W. with John Edwards. Still though, throughout this period Ward's approach to the guitar was largely intuitive and rooted in personal exploration of the instrument, by contrast with the formal training that had underpinned the development of his clarinet vocabulary. As the 2000s progressed, the guitar became increasingly more important to Ward's overall musical practice in the context of bands such as N.E.W., the avant-rock duo Dead Days Beyond Help and Ward's own free-jazz-inspired quartet Predicate. As his concept on the instrument developed and expanded, it became increasingly clear that an intense period of technical practising was going to be necessary to ensure that his command of the instrument was commensurate with the possibilities he saw for how it could be used. It was during this period that he began giving occasional solo guitar performances, each of which revealed and clarified directions that could be taken and the work still to be done.

Around 2014, the idea of making solo albums on both clarinet and guitar began to move to the forefront of Ward's mind. While work towards both proceeded concurrently, the solo clarinet album took initial precedence, and in 2017 Ward released "Proprioception" (Wee.......
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