KONDO, HIDEAKI - Structure

"Hideaki Kondo (10-string gut guitar, gut guitar); Michio Karimata (flute); Jun Kondo (contrabass); Osamu Nomura (percussion). First solo album by Hideaki Kondo, leader of Japanese leading improvisation collective, Exias-J. Kondo is known for the theoretical rigor that lies behind his technical mastery of the guitar, and for the multiplicity of his methodologies, encompassing free jazz, avant-garde, rock and folk forms. As in the playing of the late Masayuki Takayanagi, there is an originality and clarity of thought, a combination of historical understanding and contemporary intentionality in Kondo¹s approach to guitar improvisation that is simply stunning. This first solo album presents Kondo largely on ten-string gut guitar, moving with an uncanny grace and concentration from stone melodic beauty to densely structured improv violence. Fabulous support work from Exias-J regular Kondo, and sometime Keiji Haino collaborator, Michio Karimata." - Psf.