Electric Requiem – A portrait of the LAE8 for the World Festival of Sacred Music

World Festival of Sacred Music Presents
Los Angeles Electric 8

Sunday, September 21, 2008 7:00 p.m.
Armory Center for the Arts Pasadena, CA

Philip Graulty – electric guitar
Chelsea Green – electric guitar
Ben Harbert – electric guitar, bass
Andy Nathan – electric guitar
Marc Nimoy – electric guitar
Alexander Sack – electric guitar
Felix Salazar – electric guitar
JohnPaul Trotter – electric guitar, electric baritone guitar

The Los Angeles Electric 8 is an electric guitar chamber octet in which eight classically-trained guitarists direct their training and musical curiosity towards the electric guitar, an instrument usually reserved for rock. They reclaim classical music for the electric guitar, revealing the instrument’s enormous potential in the world of art music.

The 8’s founding principle is to showcase the variety of rich sounds made by electric guitars and vacuum-tube amplifiers. They draw from and adapt a variety of art music including organ works, string arrangements, wind ensembles and Indonesian gamelan pieces. The effect is an exploration of a greater potential of the electric guitar with both intentional and accidental nods to the rock characteristics of the instrument—Mendelssohn meets Mogwai. The 8’s sound is a lush interweaving of clean and occasionally overdriven guitar figures that often conjure harpsichords, bells, massive pianos and choral textures. Their repertoire spans the late Renaissance to today, including new works written specifically for the ensemble.