Expanding Your Guitarist Horizons – Johannes Möller

I thought it was high-time for another post in the growing “Expanding You Guitarist Horizons” series of posts.

And who better to showcase this time than a guitarist who I’ve had on high rotation this past couple of weeks, the Swedish guitarist and composer Johannes Möller. Johannes is making his way to Australia shortly for masterclasses and performances around the country (can’t wait!) and so I’ve been delving a little into some of his work.

I was aware of Johannes as the winner of the 2010 edition of the GFA competition and his Naxos recording resulting from that features some beautiful Barrios and stunning Regondi. I was less aware of him as a composer, I’ll admit, and so have been becoming more acquainted with his fantastic compositions recently. I’ve picked out three of my favourites to share with you today:

(1) Song to the Mother – a beautifully lyrical piece which demonstrates not only Möller’s skill as a composer and musician, but also as a fantastic guitarist.

(2) Ananda – another sumptuous solo guitar piece, inflected with Indian melodies and sitar-like qualities (I love the sitar-like string bends).

(3) Rasleela – this is my favourite of my favourites I think. This is a heavy-weight of a piece at around 16 minutes, written for guitar, tabla and bansuri. This mesmerising piece is heavily influenced by Indian melodies and rhythms, with glimpses of strong Spanish influences expertly placed in the music. Wonderful stuff.

Enjoy!