Ralph Towner , Wolfgang Muthspiel , Slava Grigoryan - Travel Guide (ECM 2013)
An international summit meeting, Travel Guide features US guitarist
Ralph Towner, Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Kazakhstan-born
and Australia-raised guitarist Slava Grigoryan. The three musicians
first came together in 2005, initially for concerts in Australia, and
have since toured widely. A 2009 recording on Muthspiels Material
Records label documented the groups early progress. Ralph Towner
subsequently brought the project to ECM and the trio recorded this album
in Lugano in August 2012, with Manfred Eicher as producer. Towner has
been a key ECM recording artist for more than 40 years, while Muthspiel
and Grigoryan make label debuts here. Grigoryan is well known as the
preeminent Australian classical guitarist of his generation, and
Muthspiels been an important figure on the transatlantic jazz scene for
two decades, with his own bands and as a contributor to groups of Gary
Burton, Paul Motian and many others. What all three guitarists share is a
strong feeling for structure, a sense for lyrical improvisation and a
feeling for space, harnessing instrumental technique to very graceful
musical ends. Repertoire features five compositions by Towner, and five
by Muthspiel.
