Daniel O'Sullivan: Fender Rhodes, Keyboards, Harmonium, Guitar, Bass, Autoharp, Electronics
David J. Smith: Drum kit, Percussion
Kavus Torabi: Guitar
James Sedwards: Bass
Influences
Magma, Miles Davis, Phil Niblock, Popol Vuh, Iancu Dumitrescu, Francis Bacon, Third Ear Band, John & Alice Coltrane, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Alvin Lucier, Harry Partch, Sun Ra, Joscelyn Godwin, Captain Beefheart, László Moholy-Nagy, Univers Zero, Pharoah Sanders, Derek Bailey, Hans Richter, Bela Tarr, AMM, Lamonte Young, Jorge Luis Borges, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Ray Harryhausen, Moondog, Ornette Coleman, Gainsbourg & Vannier, Henry Cow, Pauline Oliveros, Soft Machine, Boredoms, This Heat, Edgard Varêse, Bo Hansson, Charles Mingus, Andrei Tarkovsky, Elem Klimov, Gustave Dore, Terry Riley, Morton Feldman, Peter Brötzmann, Han Bennink, Amon Duul II, Aphrodite's Child, Don Cherry, G.I. Gurdjieff, Glenn Branca, My Bloody Valentine, Weidorje, Charlemagne Palestine, Samla Mammas Manna, Mathew Barney, Parson Sound, Tony Conrad, Richard Serra, J.G. Ballard, Black Sabbath, Werner Herzog, Javanese & Balinese Gamelan, Charles Ives, Klaus Schulze, Art Bears, Hermann Nitsch, Joseph Beuys, and on and on
Three years have passed since “Black Oni” (Ipecac Records). Four years since “Five Suns”(Cuneiform Records). The new album by Guapo is finally here and thus concludes the recondite triptych they set out to accomplish. Flux is not uncommon here, every record taking on new musical hues and offering disparate ideas and perspectives. However an upheaval in the line-up, which of recent years has been anchored by the trio of Daniel O’Sullivan, Matthew Thompson and David Smith, triggered a change in course when Thompson left the band just prior to the release of Black Oni in 2005.
RECENT HISTORY:
In the interim O’Sullivan and Smith have been active with an abundance of other projects. Both members perform in the antique-prog band Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses. O’Sullivan’s work with Æthenor (Vhf Records), Mothlite (Southern Records), Grumbling Fur (Aurora Borealis Records) as well as moonlighting in the live line-up of Sunn O))) has been keeping him extremely busy. Smith created a large scale, multi media installation entitled “The Other Side of the Island” for which he made a soundtrack with O’Sullivan and Antti Uusimaki under The Stargazers Assistant moniker (the recordings of which were released on Aurora Borealis last year). Smith also plays with members of Coil, Cyclobe and Shockheaded Peters in the Amal Gamal Ensemble. Despite these distractions, Guapo has been maintained as a primary focus and “Elixirs” has been three years in the making. It is unequivocally Guapo’s most poignant and powerful work to date.
ELIXIRS:
“It lay quite still; he touched it, it was dead. Accustomed no doubt to a sedentary life, an uneventful existence spent under its humble carapace, it had not been able to support the dazzling splendour imposed on it, the glittering garment in which it had been clad, the pavement of precious stones wherewith they had inlaid its poor back like a jewelled pyx.” J.K. Huysmans (A Rebours, 1884)
The house of the idealist is teeming with the most unlikely of treasures. Fairies, jewelled turtles, lindworms and moon worshipping plants are but a few residents. But in these fragments contain a cognitive universe propelled by an unspoken and unheard pantheon. Guapo give voice to this realm, where the mystical philosophies of Huysmans, Kircher, Conan Doyle, Hyltén-Cavallius and many others are used as facilitators and indeed, guardians for the music conceived on “Elixirs”.
As a result, Elixirs transcends any musical antecedents that Guapo have been acknowledged for in the past. Instead, the music here explores the outer-most regions of psychedelic composition. Flickers of Popol Vuh, This Heat, Magma, Third Ear Band, Moondog and early 70’s Miles Davis are present here as over-arching themes are morphed and mined through serpentine asymmetrical structures. Chiming rounds and canons swim through a sapphirine ocean of polyrhythmic mantra. All sullenly overcast with compositions so mercurial, the paths you can take are infinite. The dense orchestration and finespun virtuosity (seamlessly captured by engineer / producer Antti Uusimaki) create a richness previously hinted at but never fully realized until now. On “Elixirs” Guapo have opened a secret vault of treasures where jewels of sulphurous green and ashen blue blossom dwell. Where springs of fire feverishly burst through a vista of golden chrysoberyls. Let the ceremony commence.
Discography:
Elixirs CD Neurot Recordings 2008 Black Oni LP Hlava Records 2007 Twisted Stems CDEP Aurora Borealis 2006 Twisted Stems 7"EP Dot Dot Dot Music 2006 Black Oni CD Ipecac Recordings 2005 Five Suns CD Cuneiform Records 2004 Ducks and Drakes of Guapo & Cerberus Shoal CD North East Indie 2003 Great Sage Equal of Heaven CD Tumult/Pandemonium Records 2001 Death Seed (with Ruins and Shock Exchange) CD Freeland Records 2000 Hirohito CD Pandemonium Records 1998 Towers Open Fire CD Power Tool Records 1997
Elixirs Appraisal
Elixirs may accelerate their justified rise to prominence...Guapo manage to make music that captures the essence of those strange hours just before dawn where nothing is real and it feels as if anything is possible. A strange world of half open doors, and shrouded pictures that is quite, quite beautiful.Zero Tolerance
Fusing a deathly post-folk style of composition with wild, exploratory sounds. Stylistically, a single piece of music can turn several corners within just a few moments.Boomkat
Guapo are very deep. Their press release is chock full of words I don't understand relating to and hinting at themes I am not familiar with. While psychadelic music is known to me, never have I heard anything quite like Elixirs.Music Emissions
Elixirs takes brave listeners on a journey through dark forests of time to emerge in barren, but not interminable, climes beyond the treeline. This journey, however, is no fool’s errand. Both external discoveries and deep self-analysis are its reward.Alarm
Guapo, I believe, really have accomplished something far greater than the sum of their past career. Four years in the making, Elixirs is certainly more mature, more thought through, more classy and arranged, more logical in its evolution, as well as way clearer in vision and intent.Avant-Garde Metal
Elixirs abounds with gorgeous melodies suffused in elegant tonalities, but nothing sounds obvious or played out. Rather, mystery imbues nearly every passage over the disc's six tracks (stretched over 58 minutes, all of them justified).Curb Your Cynicism
Their tidal force succeeds in distorting the listeners’ interior strings in no time; intensely rarefied, the music swirls around your brain and continues to swoosh long after the last note is played.The Silent Ballet
Droning strings. Eastern melodies. Bombastic battery. Elegant eeriness.
Yet at this point, Guapo have developed their own sound to a degree where you can't just tag them as a retro proposition.Aquarius Records
Anyone who misses the epic gestures of old can only marvel at Guapo's restrained sleight of hand, given the ambiance of ritualistic intensity herein.Terrorizer
Club Integral @ Whitechapel Gallery, 18th December 2009.
Featuring music from Lotus Pedals, Nobodies, MayMing, Boycott Coca-Cola Experience and Jack Shirt. + DJ Chris Cornetto and projections from Jaime Rory Lucy of Rucksack Cinema
Lotus Pedals: - "Gorgeous live music from the supremely strange Lotus Pedals, who remained on stage throughout the show...shambolic, bold and beautiful...offers truly unique rewards." Beccy Smith - British Theatre Guide.
Mon Inouïe Symphonie #7 Les 18, 19 et 20 Septembre 2009
**************************************************************** VENDREDI 18 SEPTEMBRE 2009 Aux 4Ecluses (à Dunkerque)
Navette au départ de lille pour la soirée à Dunkerque (renseignements & réservations : rocknrollcharity@gmail.com)
LYDIA LUNCH & PHILIPPE PETIT (Usa/Fr) • JAAP BLONK (Nl) Martin
GRANGER & Laurence FLAHAULT (Lille) • FREDERIC LE JUNTER
(Dunkerque) • K-BRANDING (Be) • BENOIT DOBBELAERE- Emâ (Dunkerque)
**************************************************************** SAMEDI 19 SEPTEMBRE 2009 Au Grand Mix (Tourcoing)
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(renseignements & réservations : rocknrollcharity@gmail.com) GENEVA JACUZZI (usa) • EMMANUEL RABU + Basile Ferriot (Fr) • MAJA JANTAR (Be) • THE OSCILLATION (uk) • SNOWMAN (uk)
**************************************************************** DIMANCHE 20 SEPTEMBRE 2009
Au LAAC, Lieu d'Art et d'Action Contemoraine (à Dunkerque) AU (usa) • Yuri Landman (Nl)
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ATELIER LUTHERIE proposé par YURI LANDMAN
Du vendredi 18 au dimanche 20 septembre, au Bloc C, môle 1 freycinet 4 59140 Dunkerque
Tout Public • Frais de participation : 50€ (le prix correspond à l'achat des pièces nécessaires)
• Inscription (jusque début septembre) : rocknrollcharity@gmail.com
Fabrication express de guitares hybrides en trois jours !
