Eric Arn fixe Idee

“This long-running avant-garde guitarist calls his Instagram account “guitar_wrestler”, but on this new release, he and his acoustic instrument sound like they’re getting along beautifully. Maybe the wrestling happens before he presses “record,” as there is a definite degree of difficulty to these pieces. But the results are transporting and intriguing, from the sublime epic of Impromptu pour le fantôme, which opens the album, to the gnarled commentary of Ewigkeitsgasse, and many modes in between.” - Jeremy Shatan, An Earful
“tremendous guitar player, Eric Arn… and I can’t wait to spend some quality time with that particular album” - Gerard Cosloy, East Village Radio (www.mixcloud.com/gerardcosloy/051425-show-259 )
"Eric Arn plays Eric Arn. His exploration of the instrument and the resulting compositions/improvisations can best be described as an expression of contemporary instrumental guitar music. The modern world is at the center of his aesthetic endeavors, or, to put it more soberly: his work on the material. It would be wrong, however, to conclude that we are dealing here with artless and uninspired finger exercises. Far from it. Time and again, Arn evokes memories of historical role models and musical traditions, without falling into the simple repetition of musical clichés. In his versatile , accomplished way of handling his instrument, he also reminds me of Sir Richard Bishop. In terms of generation, that might not quite fit, as Bishop is a bit older, but both gained experience in the musical underground of the 1980s and 1990s: Arn as a member of The Crystalized Movements and Primordial Undermind, Bishop as guitarist of Sun City Girls. This milieu, too, has left its mark on the Viennese-by-choice's style, and he remains both on the fringes and at the center of what is currently happening. " - Holger Adam, Skug Magazine
Nearly four years to the date after the release of Higher Order, Eric Arn’s previous release for Carbon Records, we are releasing his latest collection of guitar excursions.
The songs on fixe Idee have a rolling, rambling guitar feel that builds sonic lattices which drift in the air like steel spiderwebs in the summer sky. The record opens with the American Primitive-esque storytelling saga Impromptu pour le fantôme, setting the stage for a nice variety of playing and recording styles to follow. The more pastoral tracks Sunrills and Gutbucket are nicely interspersed with the more raw, lo-fi slide-based joints Rhyolite and Ewigkeitsgasse, each with variations of tipsy tones dancing off the edge of the fretboard to bathe in a swirling concoction of acoustic fantasia.
Fixe Idee finally moves back into the Primitive landscape with the raag Melathys, then the closer, the perfectly titled Bear, completely unraveled starts with more spastic and experimental Derek Bailey leanings, then eventually settles into more rhythmic patterns, and an exhaling finale.
This is a record made by someone whose passion for the guitar as a physical instrument creating sound for enjoyment, and as a catalyst for getting right with the Universe, is deeply evident.