For Norwegian musician Erik Wollo, Guitar Nova is a return to his roots. Best known for electronic landscapes on albums such as Solstice and Images of Light, Wollo actually generates most of his music with a guitar synthesizer. For Guitar Nova, however, he returns to pure, mostly acoustic guitar in an intricate, delicately balanced set of compositions. But it's not just another solo guitar album. Wollo multitracks his instruments in elaborate designs that have the same evocative power of his more lushly orchestrated synthesizer works.

This impressive series continues with its incredibly 6-CD sets, this one yielding 100 masterful guitar performances! The heavy emphasis is on classical, from baroque to modern (with two discs devoted to Spanish guitar and another entirely to Rodrigo), but you'll encounter some Beatles along the way, too. Pieces by Bach, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Satie, Britten, Granados, Falla, Rodrigo, Albeniz, Villa-Lobos and others are played by Andres Segovia, Julian Bream, Eliot Fisk, Manuel Barrueco, Christopher Parkening and more!

The seductive sound and renewed interest in the Tango has brought the music of the Argentinian composer, Astor Piazzolla, into the world of the popular classics. His large catalogue of works is unique in using the Tango as the basis for all of his compositions, though he developed the art to the point where it is difficult to detect the dance in his complex and strictly classical music. Of his many works for chamber groups, the Histoire de Tango, composed in 1986, is one of his most popular and frequently performed works. Scored for flute and guitar, it is typical of the composer's interest in the guitar, the Five Pieces now being established in the concert programmes.

Works of Manuel de Falla - widely regarded as the most distinguished Spanish composer of the early twentieth century - are strongly influenced by Spanish folk music in which the guitar is central. Although he composed only one piece for that instrument his inspiration was flamenco and early Spanish music, including the guitar works of Gaspar Sanz. The guitar also features in Falla‘s first great success, the opera ‘La Vida Breve’. For this recording, we have selected and transcribed works in which the influence of the guitar was dominant thus translating these pieces back to their original source of inspiration.

A master of the Brazilian guitar, not to mention the greatest guitarist of the 20th century in the whole of South America… This solo recital by Baden Powell was recorded in Belgium at the 1987 International Guitar Festival that took place in Liège, where Powell took his listeners beyond the frontiers of bossa nova and into the realms of jazz, classical music and the best of MPB, the name of popular music in Brazil. The result is nothing less than a rare artistic accomplishment that combines feverishness music with tranquillity. Frémeaux & Associés, who published the master’s previous two albums, have joined forces with Guy Lukowski, the city of Liège and producers Baden Powell Produções Artisticas to make this extraordinary recording available to all. At the peak of his artistry, the guitarist shows a sparkling virtuosity that is totally subjugating.

Sharon Isbin is a multiple Grammy Award winning American classical guitarist and the founding director of the guitar department at the Juilliard School. Described by the Boston Globe's Michael Manning as a musician who plays "beyond virtuosity," guitarist Sharon Isbin has been a consistent challenge for critics, who struggle to find the right superlative that would do justice to her exquisite playing. A Renaissance woman of the guitar, Isbin performs worldwide at famous venues, commissions new works from distinguished American composers (more than any other guitarist) for her instruments, collaborates with a wide variety of musicians, and indefatigably searches for new music to play.

Bach's music is often described as indestructible, in the sense that no matter how it is performed, or in whichever arrangement, its essential spirit survives. Therefore, transcriptions of the Master's works are common, today as they were in Bach's time (Bach himself was an ardent transcriber!). This new recording presents instrumental works by Bach transcribed for and played on the modern guitar. The guitar as we know it did not exist in Bach's time - there was the baroque guitar, but it was not widespread in Germany. The closest chordophone instrument to Bach was the baroque lute, an instrument that the genius from Eisenach had among his instruments but probably did not play.