You may well have seen Florian Opahle before without realising it. I sat in a state of stunned silence watching this fantastically gifted guitarist when he played alongside Greg Lake a couple of years back. I immediately got on the internet and looked him up only to find I should have heard of him earlier.
Florian Opahle was born in Rosenheim, Germany in 1983 and is a highly regarded classically trained guitarist. He even took Master Class lessons from Al DiMeola. In 2004 he worked with Ian Anderson’s Orchestral Jethro Tull. His musical interests are far reaching and he can put his extraordinary talent towards playing blues, jazz, classical, rock, and classic rock.
The Ian Anderson tour took him across Europe and his reputation began to spread rapidly radiating out from his native Germany. His work as a session guitarist also took off as he played on albums by Italian artist Alessia D’Andrea and of course Greg Lake, with whom he toured throughout 2005.
Florian has also released a solo album fittingly entitled (for this column at least) Europhonics. For the album he is joined by keyboard player Stephan Zeh, and percussionist Timucin Dincel. Florian adds his own programming skills.
Europhonics contains seven beautifully played instrumental guitar pieces, six of which are original compositions written by Florian. “A Nice Day” is as fresh as it sounds. Anyone who has ever tried to get their fingers around a guitar’s fret board will appreciated the astonishingly clean playing here.
There is a nice balance of styles from the Mexican sounding opener through to the classically influenced. “Spanish Nights” is a wonderfully atmospheric, exquisitely performed piece. “Pick A Lick” is a superbly constructed demonstration of his, by now, undeniable mastery of the instrument.
“Pavana” is the only non original track on Europhonics. Written by F.Tarrega it has been lovingly adapted by Florian to produce a deeply moving highlight. “Synth” is not what I would have expected from the title. A wonderfully effective stripped down opening section, it builds to radiate huge splashes of atmospheric colour.
Article comments
1 - Laura Beattie
Florian, you are the BOY TOY of JT :-), and quite a wonderfully talented musician! Playing w/ Jethro Tull and Greg Lake......I would consider that quite a priveledge.....very fine talent indeed! I look forward to hearing more of your artistic skills! Laura in MO, USA