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Fractal Sextet
Fractal Sextet: Sky Full Of Hope

by Mike Jacobs
Calling Stephan Thelen's music an extension of the Swiss Minimalist movement may have once seemed appropriate. However, in the years since his band Sonar and Fractal Guitar projects have come to the fore, that characterization has increasingly become inadequate. Proximity, influence, and linkages exist but Thelen's copious activities in the last decade show such a deepening of his root concepts coupled with an embrace of the new, the notion is virtually moot. One of the projects that most ...
Continue ReadingFractal Sextet: Fractal Sextet

by Mike Jacobs
In the over two-decade-old movement" that's come to be known as Swiss Minimalism, guitarist Stephan Thelen has pushed himself to the fore, both with his group SONAR and in solo projects. In recent years, he's been astonishingly prolific (releasing five albums from 2021-2022 alone). With recent group work in Sonar being expanded to include guitarist David Torn, his Fractal Guitar album series (Moonjune, 2019, 2021, 2022) garnering critical acclaim, live albums, Bill Laswell remixes, and his World Dialogue (Rare Noise, ...
Continue ReadingStephan Thelen: Fractal Sextet

by Mark Sullivan
Swiss composer/guitarist Stephan Thelen's two Fractal Guitar albums were largely multi-tracked affairs, involving considerable file sharing. The idea of organizing a band to perform the music live may have been inevitable. The resulting Fractal Sextet is an international project consisting of guitarist Jon Durant (USA), keyboard player and composer Fabio Anile (Italy), bassist Colin Edwin (UK), drummer Yogev Gabay (Israel), percussionist Andi Pupato (Switzerland), and Thelen on guitar and programming.The original plan was to get at least the ...
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