CD Review: Maciek Pysz & Gianluca Corona - London Stories

Maciek Pysz & Gianluca Corona (guitars)
(Review by Lance).

That jazz is an international language has rarely been more personified than in this Polish/Italian meeting of like minds.
Two masters of the art of unamplified playing, feeding off each other to transform a duo into a single entity. Musical Siamese twins if you like.
Pysz, who created such a wave of enthusiasm when he played at the Globe a couple of years back, fluctuates between classical and acoustic guitar whilst Corona plays classical throughout.

Inspired by the guitar trio albums of John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola and Paco De Lucia, Pysz and Corona composed all of the pieces; some individually, some in tandem whilst living in London's suburbs. They were greatly influenced by their surrounds. The stories they tell aren't those of trendy young professionals working in the city but of the less privileged. The Londoners depicted so well in the stories of Patrick Hamilton. Zoe Gilby captured the mood of Hamilton in a song she composed - The Midnight Bell. Pysz and Corona do the same here even though the chances are that they have never read Patrick Hamilton. Nevertheless, their music conveys the same feeling. Few have portrayed the side of  London that the tourist never sees like Patrick Hamilton did. Pysz and Corona have done it - and without words!

Recorded in April this year, little could they have realised  the significance of the most poignant track on the album - Tower Block...

Apart from when Pysz is on acoustic, I can't differentiate between the two. It doesn't matter, they are so much in tune with each other that it's an album to be judged as a whole rather than as two individuals.
There won't be many if any, better guitar albums either side of the Atlantic this year.
*****
Lance.
Available on 33Jazz.