John Metcalfe

- Third Fire  

for guitar and delay

John Metcalfe is a New Zealand composer whose works are situated between different genres and blur the boundaries: Avant-garde pop, electronica, film music, classical music, neo-classical, minimal music.

This background is reflected in the three-movement "Third fire" for solo guitar with delay. Sometimes the music seems cinematic or reminiscent of minimal music by Steve Reich. In any case, the term neo-classical does not do the work justice.

The first movement, "Never even", makes great demands on the guitarist, especially  because of the unusual way in which chord are arpeggiated and changes of position are used. This light-footed sounding, but somewhat difficult to play movement is followed by "First Trip to Palatine" which may cause some trouble at first ( because of many accidentals), but has a beautiful and unique use of delays. The last movement, "The third fire", rewards with a good to play, virtuosic sounding finale.

The first movement is played in scordatura and separate delay settings are needed for each movement. Programmable delays are therefore an advantage. "Third fire" is a commission for the G Plus Ensemble around Tom Kerstens. On their album "Utopia", the individual movements are titled differently and were apparently renamed after this first recording.

http://www.john-metcalfe.co.uk/