When he left King Crimson in late 2003, the first question on most fan's minds was, "What is next for Trey Gunn?" It's taken over 3 years to get a definitive answer, but it finally arrives in the form of Quodia, an ambitious musical spoken word project with Joe Mendelson, a former member of the odd early 90s avant-hip-hop group Rise Robots Rise, and also a member of Gunn's live band.
With Gunn's tenure in King Crimson over, it was naturally assumed he would carry on with his hypnotic brand of instrumental guitar work, most of it recorded on the instrument he is known for, the Warr Guitar. A touchstyle instrument similar to the Chapman Stick, the Warr Guitar produces sound when the musician taps the strings, rather than plucks or picks. The result sounds like a cross between guitar and piano, and, in fact, the instrument's range digs deep into the bass notes as well as high into the range of guitar. This allows Gunn to take on the role of a one-man band of sorts.
Not being content, however, to simply play music, Gunn has always stretched boundaries (as a disciple of King Crimson mastermind Robert Fripp should). But on Gunn's previous solo album, 2000's The Joy of Molybdenum, there is a sense of circling about, trying to find new ideas. So when Trey Gunn announced his departure and eventual partnership with Mendelson for Quodia, many were curious just where he could possibly head from where he'd already been.
The idea of a spoken-word project may be a turn-off to some, as the storyline has to logically play out in front of the music for it to really work, and the real draw of Quodia is Trey Gunn. This is not to slight Joe Mendelson, but most interested in this project are curious for the Gunn factor, and Mendelson's non-musical contributions (the stories he tells) might be seen as an unfortunate distraction from Gunn's playing underneath.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
Sounds pretty interesting Tom. I actually like spoken word stuff when it's done well...which almost always seems to be when it is done by women. The most obvious example would be somebody like Patti Smith, but women like the far less well known Vanessa Daou also come to mind. There are certainly some elements of this in Peter Gabriel's work with early Genesis, at least as far as the storytelling aspects go.
King Crimson meets spoken word huh? To say the least, I'll be very interested in checking this out.
Nice review by the way...
-Glen
2 - Tom Johnson
Yep, you're just the type of listener that would enjoy this one, Glen. It looks like Amazon only has resellers selling this one, but it can be bought new for MUCH less ($20) at CDBaby.