Discover and Endure is a solo electric guitar album inspired by stories and experience of landscape, exploration and human endurance. This re-imagines souces from jazz, folk and classical traditions in an ambitious set of new music. Themes include Antarctic exploration, Cairgorms National Park, midwinter celebrations in high latitudes, extreme weather and remote locations. Original pieces surround adaptations of Scottish traditional tunes and a unique arrangement of Holst’s orchestral masterpiece Egdon Heath. You can read the stories behind the tunes in the accompanying booklet or at www.stevegarrettguitar.com/discover-and-endure.

The album crosses genres fluidly. To quote Fraser Fifield, ‘Gone are the days of neatly categorizing music .. and all the better we are with the freedom that brings’. Solo electric guitar fits into the ‘jazz’ category in many minds, and the new album displays many of the hallmarks of jazz such as improvisation and  complex chords. The influence of ‘traditional’ music is also clear – both ancient (Piobaireachd) and modern. ‘Rock’ flavours include a variation on a Dave Grohl theme. Transcribing and arranging the ‘classical’ Holst piece revealed bi-tonality, jazzy chords, tricky time signatures, and folky tunes. Perhaps this album would be best classified under ‘guitar’.

Discover and Endure marks a progression from Steve’s 2015 debut solo album Even Song in content, technique and equipment. The new album contains more original tunes, longer improvised passages, and a greater diversity of arrangements. The distinctive clear guitar tone is again provided by a Gibson ES-335 custom with Lollartron pickups through an AER amplifier, and the album’s sound world benefits again from the mastery of Stuart Hamilton at Castlesound Studios. New ‘orchestral’ sustained notes and drones are provided by an Electro-Harmonix Freeze pedal and new backing ‘drumbeats’ are from multi-tracked guitar percussive sounds through a sub-octave pedal.

The team at RRS Discovery, Dundee have been engaged throughout this project, allowing the album cover photos to be taken on board this iconic ship from the early days of Antarctic exploration, and organising the album launch event during April 2019. The album booklet also includes images of Steve’s landscape watercolour paintings from his own time in Antarctica.

Born in London, Steve Garrett has lived and traveled across the UK, Antartica, Canada and California, and now calls Scotland home. Listeners hear his work as ‘serene’, ‘focusing’, ‘calming’, ‘beautiful’, ‘haunting’ and ‘hypnotic music’, creating an ‘ambience of tranquility and pleasure’.

We hope you enjoy the new album and look forward to your feedback.

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Guitarist Steve Garrett launches Discover and Endure, his new solo electric guitar album inspired by stories and experience of landscape, exploration and human endurance.

This evening marks the launch of Steve’s new album which re-imagines music from diverse sources – jazz, folk, rock, renaissance and orchestral. The narrative features quotes from key inspirational texts, including an introduction to RRS Discovery and the southern journey of 1902-3 which inspired the title track. Landscape inspiration is articulated by quotes from Nan Shepherd’s ‘The Living Mountain’ and realised in music by a new transcription of Gustav Holst’s ‘Egdon Heath’. Scottish traditional tunes give perspective on human endurance, from Padruig Mor MacCrimmon (’Lament for the Children’) or collected by Robert Burns (‘Lassie Lie Near Me’).

Born in London, Steve has lived and travelled across Britain, Antarctica and North America, and now calls Scotland home. Live audiences hear his solo electric guitar work as ‘serene’, ‘focusing’, ‘calming’, ‘beautiful’, ‘haunting’ and ‘hypnotic music’, and enjoy the ‘ambience of tranquility and pleasure’. His 2015 album ‘Even Song’ gained positive reviews, and he has performed across the UK.

Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk