Elliott Sharp - Sally Gates - Tashi Dorji: Ere Guitar

There is an art to arranging the guests at a dinner party or wedding reception. One wants to foster interesting conversations, sometimes between strangers, and create new friendships. The same can be said of Ere Guitar, a party organized by Downtown legend Elliott Sharp. The guitarist had previously released Err Guitar (Intakt, 2017) with his colleagues American guitarists Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot. With this 2023 recording, Sharp invited New Zealand guitarist sally gates, who is a member of the experimental jazz-metal group Titan to Tachyons, and Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji to record a collection of mostly improvised trio numbers.

Sharp's party matches unacquainted musicians, but most certainly Gates, Dorji, and many creative musicians will be familiar with their host's massive discography and diverse tastes. Both Gates and Dorji have an inclination towards metal and extended guitar technique. Dorji leans into the reinvention of his instrument à la Derek Bailey and Gates smashes an avant-blues in the mix.

Eight of the ten tracks are completely improvised, and only "Drill Core" and "Popular Science" credit Sharp as the composer. The latter track trades off on the decay of guitar notes by the three performers while ramping up the intensity. "Unfinished Conversation" stretches what could be described as cetacea sounds—in other words, whale vocalization—into Sharp's dinner parlay. The crunch and gnawing sounds on tracks such as "Wildlife" and "Addressing The Convention" continue the three-way dialogue as each musician applies effects and adds to the dialogue. All credit to Sharp for orchestrating this assemblage of guitars, and for the creation of new partners and friends.