Guitar Techniques February 2019

After six years away from studio recording, Transatlantic's Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Roine Stolt, and Pete Trewavas met in Sweden over four days in 2019. They cut enough material to fill two albums. Plans to complete and tour the set in 2020 were scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Morse wanted a single-disc release, but his bandmates disagreed. Portnoy offered an unprecedented solution: to issue two musically distinct versions of the record simultaneously. Stolt shepherded the 90-minute double disc – subtitled "Forevermore" – to completion. For his part, Morse went further than editing for the abridged disc, subtitled "The Breath of Life." He rearranged, reorchestrated, and re-recorded songs using different singers; he also penned some new lyrics and an exclusive song. While 13 of the original 18 tracks cut for The Absolute Universe are shared, some are radically different musically, and some employ different titles.

Since bursting on to the UK Blues scene with their debut record ‘The Uprising EP’ in April 2019 followed by their second EP ‘Innocence Of Youth’ in May 2020, Grace and Aaron have been going from strength to strength. The British husband and wife duo have an ever-growing online fan base and have gained the attention of Cerys Matthews’ The Blues Show on BBC Radio 2. Their unique harmonic vocal-led approach to song writing, dirty electric guitar, slide resonator mandolin and fiddle create a unique distinctive and contemporary blues rock sound that echoes 1970s classic rock with hints of the 1930s blues that inspire them.

Brazilian tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman is a remarkably productive recording artist known for combining simple Brazilian folk themes with the techniques of free jazz and an improvisational aesthetic that have grown increasingly varied as well as prolific over time…