Advancing
the electric guitar chamber music tradition
The Los Angeles Electric 8 is an electric guitar chamber octet
in which eight classically-trained guitarists direct their
training and musical curiosity towards the electric guitar,
an instrument usually reserved for rock. They reclaim classical
music for the electric guitar, revealing the instrument’s
enormous potential in the world of art music.
The 8's founding principle is to showcase the variety of rich
sounds made by electric guitars and vacuum-tube amplifiers.
They draw from and adapt a variety of art music including organ
works, string arrangements, wind ensembles and Indonesian gamelan
pieces. The effect is an exploration of a greater potential
of the electric guitar with both intentional and accidental
nods to the rock characteristics of the instrument--Mendelssohn
meets Mogwai. The 8's sound is a lush interweaving of clean
and occasionally overdriven guitar figures that often conjure
harpsichords, bells, massive pianos and choral textures. Their
repertoire spans the late Renaissance to today, including new
works written specifically for the ensemble.
The 8 seeks out repertoire that is related to the electric
guitar in a variety of ways, for instance hearing electric
guitar timbres in church organs or struck metal or hearing
driving ostinatos in Shostakovich or Stravinsky that overlap
with electric guitar rock riffs. Beyond re-imagining the traditional,
the 8 is devoted to playing new music. They have premiered
new works and continue to seek out works by living composers
such as Peter Yates, Frank J. Oteri, Nathaniel Braddock, Cornelius
Boots, Wayne Siegel, and Randall Kohl. Their debut CD illustrates
how they balance adapting the old and advancing the new.
Los Angeles Electric 8 members believe in making connections
with their audiences. As individuals, most of the members have
significant experience teaching classical guitar. As an octet,
they have done lecture/demonstrations at UCLA, Cal Poly Pomona,
and the California Men's Colony, a California state prison.
Birth of the 8
The seed for the Los Angeles Electric 8 was a 2004 performance
of classical music on electric guitars organized by the Los
Angeles Modern Guitar Project, featuring students of guitarist
Peter Yates. The second half of the recital brought eight of
the performers together for a West Coast premiere of three
new works by Chicago composer/guitarist Nathaniel Braddock.
In 2006, four of these guitarists, Ben Harbert, Philip Graulty,
Chelsea Green and Felix Salazar performed in the late James
Tenney's microtonal electric guitar sextet, Water on the Mountain...
Fire in Heaven... for the James Tenney Festival. Recognizing
the potential of the electric guitar in chamber music, they
dusted off the Braddock pieces, began recruiting other guitarists
and sought out material that would fit the group.
