The Undiscovered: Pino Forastiere

Working out new, technical methods to apply to his instrument led to the music on Italian guitarist Pino Forastiere's CD-R. Featuring six solo guitar selections from a thirteen song collection entitled Rag Tap Boom, Forastiere and his engineer, Daniele Saracino, recorded the pieces using an elaborate miking/direct setup in order to capture seven tracks at the same time from different sound sources. The music was recorded in one take, with absolutely no overdubs; only the selection of the best takes and numerous creative mixing possibilities remained after the recording sessions were completed. The two parallel goals of realism and quality were achieved, and the result is the hypnotic and harmonically intenseness of tracks such as "Rag Tap Boom", "Uni-Verse" and "Thumb". Clearly, Forastiere is on to something here with his experimentation and devotion to the guitar. Fans who love hearing the interesting potential textures from one man and an instrument should stay tuned to more from this creative guitar player.

Pino was born in a small country town in the south of Italy. He moved to Rome with his parents in 1978 and began to study music. Some years later, Pino obtained his degree in guitar from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, passing his final exam with a ten string classical guitar. Using that guitar, whether on original or classical compositions seemed to expand the sound he was striving for. Later, Pino studied music composition, chamber music and sound engineering. His influences include Frank Zappa, Stravinsky, Michael Hedges and Maderna. Pino, in order to hear his music properly, developed a whole new physical approach to the six-string guitar. In 1999, he completed his first work "Overcrossing", which was both experimental and traditional.

Forastiere plans to continue to expand the possibilities of solo guitar through sound, technique, space and time.

Pino Forastiere
Italy

Web site: www.forastiere.it">hometown.aol.com/japjam/index.html