a listening session on the works of Lars Rüetschi

Swiss guitar wizard Lars Rüetschi long has realized one of the more significant indications of how a person holds a mature inner view of music - as this vision becomes more intact and tasteful, the more significant and communicative each note becomes to that person, and the evolving player - for the socioculturally challenged : playa - tends to use less and less of them in a musical statement, still of course being driven by the constant attempt to explore the optimum meaning of each sound.

Note: this is not to say that Michael Angelo Batio would perform illegal operations via minigunning 222 notes per second your way, - as a warmup exercise - it's just that one simple motive of those MAB statements necessarily demands this furious pace and precision, as Michael Angelo Batio's music incorporates the unconcealed desire to leave you speechless via its scientifically streamlined nuclear energy - and this, of course, is a perfectly valid agenda.

The highly productive Lars Rüetschi sounds to be evolving through a creative period in which he takes his time exploring the significance of notes both as legs on a table that hold up harmonies, and, as elements of soloistic passages that remain content with their anatomies as long as their silhouettes manage to conform to their harmonic environments, as opposed of mocking them around - taking risks - and look either bad or genius in the process. Risks are not taken, and, as such, no risks are present of offending the "seasoned" lazy listener. This is as beneficial a trait of this creative period as is a hindrance of it, but this hindrance equally is necessary, - for an album or two - as this will become the very burden to be discarded - provided that Rüetschi will want to exhibit a readiness to dismiss the shackles of politely behaved harmonies.

The music itself is lush, reverberating, wet, and, most importantly: safe. Safe with almost all activities you can think of. The best current aspect of Rüetschi's music that I'm picking up on, is a relentless and insatiable urge to approach the form/the idea/the ethos of harmony from numerous different ways, yet the dominant solo language, as noted, is more indicative of an intent to extend the anatomies of the underlying chords. You could say, "But hey, isn't this what soloing is about?" In an optimal world, soloing is about making everyone FORGET that this is what soloing - secretly, but not silently - is about. Like this guy does : Another Challenger.

Lars Rüetschi seems to share some or all levels of this very notion I just offered, and to my ears, it sounds like that the component he needs to obtain to reach the next level of personal musical evolution, is a tad more intent to move out of his current comfort zones, as I suspect there he could find and showcase patterns of unprecedented eloquence. A talented artist with an extremely keen sense of harmony. Check out Lars Rüetschi on Amazon here.

GyZ at Bandcamp.

If you want, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer.