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Liam Grant (MA):
Liam Grant is a New England guitarist with a punk ethos, cut from the American Primitive cloth. The restless guitar explorations, modal epics, and driving uptempo rags recall the likes of Grant's pedagogue; Takoma Records, and the path that was paved by his forebears John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Peter Walker, Max Ochs and later Glenn Jones, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Jack Rose, and others.
Bridging that past Grant evokes the pith of the landscape where he was raised. Instrumental
memoirs and ruminations on the banks of the Merrimack River. Amoskeag. And the place where
the waters flow around it. Salmon tails up the falls and black pearls from the river. The exodus to
Stratton-Eustis and the last night on Dead River before the great flood.
Prodigal Son - VHF debut and second widely-available LP by Grant, part of a new generation of underground “American primitive” guitar players serving the traditions and smashing them up simultaneously. Prodigal Son is a portrait of an artist on the road, changing fast, recording things as they spring from the fountain. The sound here is raw – grass and dirt instead of prefab; homemade/handmade instead of high-tech, etc. There’s a visceral quality and immediacy of culture that’s being lost
every day in modern life – Prodigal Son is a chance to grab some of it back. “Palmyra” has Liam on weissenborn-style lap steel, the sound fuzzed out and distorted by the guerilla recording technique. “Salmon Tails Up The River” stretches out to nearly 13 minutes, a dense meditation on 12 string that sustains a dark and heavy mood for the entire duration. On the B side, “Insult to Injury” reverses the mood, with an elegant and unhurried 12 string sequel of deep beauty. Liam’s
unexpected take on Loren Conners’ “A Moment at the Door” is a perfect translation of Loren’s reverb-heavy electric drift to unadorned acoustic (and tape hiss) – a frozen moment of absolute grace. Wrapping things up is a take on “Old Country Rock,” with fiddle and banjo, just a brief taste of the barnstorming old-time sound of Liam’s touring trio.

Eric Arn (US/AT):
"Arn entlockt seiner Gitarre flirrenden Ambient-Noise, an Derek Bailey oder Bill Orcutt erinnernde atonale oder gewissermaßen kaputte Tonfolgen oder meditative Improvisationen, bevor dann mit eine Komposition folgt, die sich auch im klassischen Takoma-Katalog gut gemacht hätte" (Holger Adam, Skug).

American-born, Vienna based, guitarist Eric Arn has mined the nether regions of avant-rock, free improv, drone and psychedelia with the bands Crystalized Movements in the 1980s and Primordial Undermind over the last three decades. He has also released 10 albums of wide-ranging solo and duo improvisation and experimentation, and performs live throughout Europe and North America.
Higher Order “Eric moves through vast style fields with absolute surety. He can generate massive drone-throbs that would make even that old crank Fahey smile. He can play with sound sheets in a way that moves even deeper into experimental realms. He can play acoustic fantasia sprawls that would have made Fahey swear... One of our fave guitar wranglers. Somewhere between Renbourn & Chadbourne.” - Byron Coley

Orphic Resonance "At times, Eric sounds like a cross between Django Reinhardt and Derek Bailey, and at other times, he's forging his own brand of Americana (via Austria), with Eastern, psych, and experimental influences, echoing the sounds of John Fahey, John Martyn, and Popol Vuh. Ranking right up there with releases by contemporaries such as Richard Bishop, Jack Rose, David Grubbs, Daniel Bachman, and Rob Noyes.” - Joe Tunis, Carbon Records.