This album includes themes from eight original compositions by the composer and International acclaimed bassist Avishai Cohen including two of his arrangements of traditional pieces. All the ten pieces are from five different albums released by Avishai Cohen, and in this recording I combine them with rhythms, modes, ornaments and other stylistic features of Balkan traditional music. Those symbioses came both from my great appreciation of the music by Avishai and from my recent interests and roots in the Balkan music, evolved in different aspects and directions that I have explored and found. Avishai’s use of odd-meter and his natural rhythmic abilities was also one of my basic motivations to go further and mix it with the Balkan idiom. The general musical structures I used are also related and inspired by those used by Avishai, creating a more intimate approach between different contexts and their musical features.

In all the pieces I replaced jazz improvisations with written, prepared composed parts. I found it more efficient to have two or more written-out voices than the content I could do within an improvised section. In this way I kept a higher range of possibilities of my instrument. However, in the future development of this repertory it could be possible to combine improvisations with the written-through sections.

The 10 strings extended guitar range, that I use, includes four bass strings more than the normal six strings classical guitar. My experiments with different tunings, tonalities, technics and fingering have made technically possible the solo guitar performance of those complex themes without diminishing their musical potential. In this project I found a way to compose and present my compositional elements and skills as an “overture” which will lead to my own compositions and reflections later.

Most of the presented pieces in this album were never played on solo classical guitar before. The performance on those works on my instrument is also a kind of innovative musical translation that I have the pleasure to share with others.