Donald McPherson & Tetuzi Akiyama - Vinegar & Rum LP
2022 restock; LP version. Recorded in New Zealand in 2004, this is the duo recording of New Zealand guitarist Donald McPherson and Japanese guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama. A beautiful meeting of two virtuoso acoustic guitarists, both thoroughly schooled in the vast world of improvising. Donald McPherson, a native New Zealander, has released a number of extremely limited lathe-cut folk records. Tetuzi Akiyama is often associated with the improvising community in Tokyo generated around Tokyo's Off Site venue. But Tetuzi's sound owes just as much to the country blues guitarists of the '30s. His sound has taken the blues form into a new world of minimalist improvisations. His loose playing side-steps the usual clichés of the guitar in both the free improv and traditional folk scenes. Tetuzi has a varied number of very different projects from free improvisations, working with musicians across the globe, to hard minimalist electric blues boogies. Vinegar & Rum finds Tetuzi and Donald playing melodic folk improvisations that grow and morph into compositions that upon each listening uncover some new layer of beauty. Both playing on acoustic guitar, they have a level of communication and understanding that allows a musical connection to grow and blossom into a full-length recording of delicate melodic mayhem.