Guitares Cinématiques | en

Guitares Cinématiques formed in 2007 is a solo band of the guitarist and composer, Nicolas, a disciple of guitarist Ralph Towner (Oregon). Guitares Cinématiques combines guitar, voice, cello, flugelhorn, and sound effects to create theatrical visual music.

Penguins on Mars (released in 2009) is the debut CD of Guitares Cinématiques. The music was designed to suggest the visual imagery of an imaginery film. It is a "concept" album which delves into ideas and topics in the land of astrophysics and astrobiology. The instrumentation consists of classical guitar played acoustically or as a synthesizer (simulating horns or percussion instruments), acoustic cello, acoustic flugelhorn (played by guest artist Steve Stanley), voiceovers (in English or Japanese by Nicolas), vocals (sung in English by guest artist Shanna Gilfix), synthesizer (played by guest artist Xavier Horcholle) and location sfx's of trains, cicadas, ocean waves, etc...

The half of the music on the CD is instrumental and half are complex "scenes" - elaborate mixes of narrative, music, and sfx as if from a film. The scenes are highly visual and evocative. The music varies from simple melodies to rhymically complex combinations of several different tempos occuring simultaneously. Although the overall approach might be "neoclassical", the styles of the songs have a large range: from alternative rock ("So Easy") to classic jazz ("Hi L'eau") to classical ("Rain") to world ("Natsukashii" and "Kontiki") to experimental rock ("CME", "My Semi Annual Dream") to space music ( "Pas Encore Mars", and "ALH840001")

There is also a single song released separately from the CD entitled "Heavenly Forces Are (Not Necessarily) So Divine."

Guitares Cinématiques' website is http://www.penguinsonmars.com

The custom classical guitar used by Guitares Cinématiques was designed by Dr. Michael Kasha and built by Jay Hargreaves and the late Richard Schneider.
luthier Jay Hargreaves' website is http://www.jthbass.com/guitars.html .