Tim Brady / Instruments Of Happiness - Imagine Many Guitars [Redshift Records]

Another more recent album put out on the circuit via the Canadian Redshift Records imprint is "Imagine Many Guitars", the latest musical envisionment of Montreal-based guitar player and composer Tim Brady and his collective x ensemble named Instruments Of Happiness. Released on September 27th, 2k24 the longplayer naturally focuses on the guitar as the main instrument - or better: various multiples of it - with the 24+ minutes spanning opener "This One Is Broken In Pieces: Symphony #11" written for a set of eight electric guitars paired and overdubbed with soprano choir vocals which fall together in a scenic, intense, dramatic, yet icey and compositionally bold manner, providing an otherworldly sonic quality surely about to resonate with fans and followers of Japanese anime culture for a reason before even referring to Rock and PostRock in certain sequences. Following up is "Slow, Simple", subtitled 'music for 20 electric guitars", with its dense, ever whirling soundscapes reminiscent of vintage sci-fi scores or - in parts at least - off-kilter viola treatments both in its rather harmonic and drifting as well as its more aggressive segments later replaced by intricate layerings of plucked strings and airy, somewhat nebulous harmonic shifts and echoes of psychedelia-infused Space Rock solos. The following quartet pieces grouped under "Five Times: Four Guitars" keep up with influences of Space Rock and even so-called Kosmische / Berlin School with their floating, in parts twangy and probably New Age-influenced approach before the set of "[Very] Short Pieces For (Jazz) Guitar" from all the way back in 1979 rounds things off with an inward looking, beautiful and most comforting gaze into the composers earliest work and therefore provides an interesting contrast to Brady's contemporary pieces.

Album artwork on Instagram!