If there’s one thing that’s abundantly clear from Giorgos Tabakis’ latest record, the man is an absolute wizard with the strings. ‘HEre NOw TheN’ sees the guitarist show his listeners just how powerful and majestic an eight string guitar can be. Motivated to reveal the instrument as something orchestral in nature, something that could drive an entire record on its own, he composed the record that combines jazz, progressive, folk, with more experimental and avant garde sounds. The record is definitively an experimental journey, with no clear defined song structures that come across as immediately palatable to a casual listener. But amidst its mild chaos, Tabakis finds a canyon of expression that he’s able to deliver through his eight strings.
Some tracks are long, taking you on six and seven minute escapes that move from high to low, form edge to edge, and everywhere in between. Others, like ‘Touch’, last fleetingly. They impart an emotion in that minute glance they’re able to share with you. hEre nOw theN is a single work with different parts, highlighting the need for a source and unfettered expression of deeper ideas, experiences, concerns and questions of the composer in an unprecedented reality.
Songs like Cloudshapes take a vivid and scenic approach, almost allowing Tabakis’ string to play brush for a blank canvass. Here, each nuance is able to deliver something that captivates your attention, having you imagine bright colours, lavish landscapes, and puffy and wildly grandiose clouds above. It is immaculate in execution, and ambitious in conception.
Above all, listening to this record almost necessitates that you be in a state to unwind yourself. ‘hEre nOw theN’ can be the perfect lullaby if you’re a guitar aficionado. The string work, sublime throughout, is all that Tabakis needs to carve out songs of such dexterity and emotion.