Shane Parish :: Autechre Guitar (Palilalia)

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Gratitude feels like the right place to begin—because without a chance introduction decades ago, this remarkable record might never have found its way into the world.

Acoustic alchemy meets electronic origins

First I want to thank Courtney Chappell for turning on her partner, Shane Parish, to the music of Autechre some twenty-five years ago. If she hadn’t been twitching to that beatific glitch, and if she hadn’t passed on her love for one of the most abstract yet relatable electronic artists of our era, Parish might never have come to make this record. I am so glad he did.

As I’ve mentioned before in other reviews, fingerpicked guitar music, American primitive explorations, classical guitar, and ambient guitar music are all areas of listening I continue to mine and explore alongside my other musical interests. Since at least 1997 one of those interests has been the music of Autechre. Their increasingly Maxed out and metamusical mixtures have formed the soundtrack to a good chunk of my life. I try to keep up with their new albums, including the NTS Sessions, Sign, Plus, and the recent live shows they have been releasing on digital. Yet I always find myself going back to listen to Tri Repetae at least few times a year, as well as other albums, such as Chiastic Slide, LP5, EP7 and the Peel Sessions. Sometimes Amber and Incunabula from the earlier years.

When I first saw this album announced I was elated on listening to the first tracks that had been released. The works covers the pre-Tri Repetae era of music on up to a track off LP5. To hear these songs played on acoustic guitar was a revelation. It gives me hope that the roots music and folkways of America can continue to merge and find allies within more avantgarde sound worlds. It gives me hope that the rich vein of “ambient country” and “cosmic Americana” tapped into by groups like SUSS will also find kinship with people like Parish who are bridging the heritage of our past with the digital devotees of complex and recondite computer music.

Parish has been working at transposing the music of electronic artists for his guitar for a few years now at least. On his 2024 album Repertoire, he tackled songs from Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin, alongside the music of jazz luminaries Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, and Sun Ra. He even threw a John Cage piece on there for good measure. I’ve really been digging the folk song renditions he created on Undertaker Please Drive Slow, which is its own gnostic and visionary revelation that came to him in a fit of inspiration.

Chance introduction sparks sonic transformation ::

Noise rocker Bill Orcutt put this album out on his Palilalia Records label, which also adds to the energy of the music. Parish plays in the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet alongside Ava Mendoza, Wendy Eisenberg, and Orcutt himself. The group presents ecstatically challenging and viscerally rapturous sonic explorations that push the guitar and their abilities into the realms of extended technique, making it utterly unique.

All of this is to say the Autechre Guitar album got me as excited about hearing familiar songs played in a brand new way as it did to find more music from Parish and more music from the Palilalia label.

I still think it would be cool if Parish went on from Autechre’s melodic era and tried to transpose some of their current live sets or other challenging abstract material. Barring that, maybe Sean Booth and Rob Brown will invite him to play guitar alongside their computers in complete darkness. That would be something to hear. For while I have heard Autechre occasionally remix another artist, have never heard them collaborate with someone else beyond their work with The Hafler Trio.

There is a world of possibility out there. Artists who have honed their craft can show us how it can be applied in new ways. If we look at the state of the world, we can see that so many things are falling apart because we continue to do things the way they’ve always been done without looking at the alternatives. Yet here we are shown that those who put their imagination to work alongside discipline are able to bring out entirely new versions of those old familiar songs. So too in our culture that is formed by our imagination, listening to music like this might help us make a new interpretation of the old familiar problems of life, and approach them in a new way.

We need that more than ever. Let Parish form your soundtrack as you contemplate what else might be possible.

Autechre Guitar is available Palilalia. [Bandcamp]