Robin Katz tipped

marlbank

6 months ago

It certainly proved quite exciting discovering this new music earlier today from guitarist Robin Katz. I had not heard of the Londoner before and find his sound, while trying unsuccessfully to curb my enthusiasm at least a bit, quite bewitching & land, as it were, over the moon – Gary.

Marvellous. “Precocious talent, isn’t he? Mmm? Ooh, got it all, you know? Speed, acceleration, sweet left foot, all the tricks – the dummy, the drop of the shoulder, the shimmy, nutmeg, jiggery-pokery, hocus pocus, abracadabra,”

Erm, quite, Ron – without going too giddy: Hypnos overall is additionally shaped around his guitar and the sound of the Hammond organ played by Nathaniel Ledwidge. If you are into some of the work of Antonio Forcione then what’s available so far fits in well. Or maybe thoughts of John Williams playing Stanley Myers’ Cavatina all those years ago immortalised as the theme for The Deerhunter flicker and stir to somehow benevolently intervene.

‘The Moon’ arpeggiating exuberantly is drawn from an album out later this spring called Hypnos.

Katz has already issued a stunning version of the much beloved Ryuichi Sakamoto movie theme ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’ the film that had David Bowie starring as Major Jack “Strafer” Celliers in the 1983 flick, arranged here by Barak Schmool – of F-IRE Collective fond regard – that also captivates.

Katz says: “These pieces were initially written as études for solo guitar, and they reflect the wide range of influences found in the music I love to listen to.”

‘The Moon’, out via the King’s Cross label Gearbox, is beautifully mixed by Freemonk.

Katz explains that “Hypnos is the Greek god of sleep, the father of Morpheus, the god of dreams” and that “the inclusion of the Hammond organ came from a desire to pair the nylon-string guitar with an instrument you don’t usually hear alongside it.”