Tenebrae Greg Beslile-Chi

• 1Resurgam (with Chelsea Crabtree)05:58
• 2Tragedian05:14
• 3Speech (with Chelsea Crabtree)05:33
• 4Victim (Reprise)01:59
• 5Fear and Trembling07:19
• 6Victim08:03
• 7Sabbaths X, 1998 (with Chelsea Crabtree)07:46
• Total Runtime41:52

Info for Tenebrae

Young Seattle guitarist/composer’s debut record, for solo electric guitar (plus female voice on 3 songs), is strikingly beautiful and mysterious. Hard to categorize (Gregg namechecks Ligeti and Bartok, but there’s also a Ben Monder influence), the music hovers somewhere between contemporary classical and jazz but transcends those labels through its haunting expressive depth. It also relates to the “alternate” tradition of new music for solo guitar going back to John Fahey, as well as the "avant folk" of artists like Robin Holcomb, and could also be seen as a contribution to the music of altered states of consciousness. Excellent analogue recording in a reverberant soundspace.

“Gregg has dug deep down into a personal musical zone, transcended his compositional devices, and come back to us with some compelling gems. This is some of the most beautiful music I've heard in a long while.” (Cuong Vu, trumpet player and Chair of Jazz Studies, University of Washington)

Gregg Belisle- Chi, electric guitar
Chelsea Crabtree, voice (on tracks 1, 3, 7)

Analogue recording mixed in 96 kHz

Gregg Belisle- Chi

is a guitarist and composer living in Seattle, Washington.

He has maintained a busy career in music performing and recording with various Jazz, Avant-Garde, Pop/Rock, Folk, and Chamber Ensembles. He is a regular member of Jim Knapp’s Scrape Orchestra, Andy Clausen’s Shutter and Split Stream Big Band, and performs duo with vocalist Chelsea Crabtree.

He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Cornish College of the Arts where he studied with guitarists Dave Peterson and Michael Nicollela, multi-instrumentalist Jay Thomas, and composer Jim Knapp. Beginning in Fall 2014 he will be enrolled in the Masters Program at the University of Washington School of Music under the direction of Cuong Vu and Ted Poor.

He has performed with Bill Frisell, Eyvind Kang, Wayne Horvitz, Tom Varner, Bob Sheppard, and Jay Clayton.

Gregg is currently composing music for solo guitar and duo (with Chelsea Crabtree) for his debut record, expected to be released late 2014. He can also be heard on Scrape’s Approaching Vyonnes(Original Classical, 2013) Honey Noble’s self-titled album (self released, 2013) Tomten’s Wednesday’s Children (FlatField Records, 2012), and Annabel Lee’s Lone Bodies(self-released, 2012).

Booklet for Tenebrae