by Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery, NYC

My Favorite Strings (Isinaz 1002/Italy) Featuring fourteen mostly guitar duets with Derek Bailey, Elliott Sharp, Henry Kaiser, Eugene Chadbourne, Nick Didkovsky, Davey Williams, Waedi Gysi, Mike Johnson (Thinking Plague), Roberto Zorzi, Franco Fabri [the known pickers] and [the lesser known] Angelo Avogadri, Giorgio Casadel, Roberto Zanisi and Frank Crijns

 Luciano plays acoustic and electric guitars, samples, loops, zurna (double reed?) and assorted objects. What he has done is take 14 solo guitar or bass improvisations from each of the players involved, sent through the mail and then reconstruct pieces by adding or layering his own playing or processing. The pieces were recorded over four years (1999-2003), except for the Derek Bailey improv that came from 1991. Luciano does a fabulous job of framing or placing each solo within a structure of some sort by adding a bass line, rhythm sample and/or snippets/solo of other guitar parts. In many ways this sounds like a great solo effort, since the pieces are so focused and seamlessly connected, but never too busy or dense. A number of these guitarists, including Luciano himself, sound influenced by Fred Frith, so Fred's older sustain tone hovers like a great smiling ghost above the rest of the collection. Speaking of Fred Frith, Luciano covers an incredibly rare Henry Cow (Fred's old band) song called "Would You Prefer Us to Lie?", which was never officially released by the band, as a bonus track and it is done with taste and care. A few of these tracks feature some melting, warped guitars, but never go on for too long after they've established a thoughtful mood or setting. Very well done throughout and certainly a must for all experimental guitar fan-addicts. Check out the review in the Wire, if you require further proof.