Against the idea that the guitar’s potential has already been exhausted, Shane Parish has been carving out an exemplary body of work on the instrument that, without resorting to grand gestures, quietly disproves that claim. A guitarist, composer, improviser, and educator, he builds a language grounded in a deep knowledge of history, its canons and forms, projected into the present, whether through his work with Ahleuchatistas and the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet or in his solo acoustic practice, where he engages both the Appalachian songbook and visionaries such as Ornette Coleman and Aphex Twin.
Earlier this year he released the surprising and self-explanatory “Autechre Guitar”, where the somewhat unthinkable transcription of 1990s electronic music by the pioneering Sheffield duo reveals the melodic and emotional core — so often overlooked — of pieces from Amber and Tri Repetae, in what is most essential about them. One of those records you just HAVE to listen to.