Stephen Mejias

I’m in love with Eric Chenaux’s Guitar & Voice, to be released on CD and LP by Constellation Records on March 6.

The album’s nine tracks alternate between long, poetic ballads and shorter, bowed-guitar instrumentals. Interestingly, though these two styles initially seem very different, repeated listens reveal fascinating similarities in texture, tone, and mood. And whether Chenaux is delivering compelling images atop gentle guitar solos or producing long, airy drones, the sound throughout is intoxicating. Recorded by Radwan Moumneh at Six Saint V, a small Montreal apartment provided by Constellation to visiting musicians, Guitar & Voice has a sound that is both distant and dreamlike (guitar) and present and natural (voice), making it great fun to listen to on the hi-fi.

I was hooked from the opening moments of the album’s lead track, “Amazing Backgrounds.”