Alex Machacek: You guys are f***ing nuts - this record is amazing! - Allan Holdsworth

"You guys are f***ing nuts - this record is amazing! - Allan Holdsworth

Virtuosity is more than mere technical prowess: it also consists of a certain creative restlessness – a constant urge to explore, improve, and reinvent. No matter how well refined the execution, true virtuosity withers when repeatedly making the same statement, running the same patterns, or improvising over the same changes. With his provocative new release 24 Tales, Alex Machacek has sought an inventive new context for both his incredibly fluid, precise guitar work and his expanding compositional vision.

“I have always liked drums,” Machacek explains. “On so many fusion and jazz records, there is an extended drum solo – sometimes it feels obligatory. At a certain point I thought, ‘How would it sound if I compose something based on a drum solo? Drummers are always getting wilder with what they do in terms of meter and technique…” His fascination with drums led to several experiments with composing music based on (and performed on top of) improvised drum solos – a practice that reaches its fullest potential on 24 Tales.

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