Gareth Dickson has spent the last two and a half years touring with Vashti Bunyan as her guitarist. This gave him the opportunity to work with great musicians like Devendra Banhart, Juana Molina and Coco Rosie, as well as the chance to perform in some of the great venues all over the world from The Barbican(London) to Carnegie Hall (New York).
Gareth, who hails from Glasgow, Scotland, uses a steel stringed acoustic guitar and effects (delay and reverb) in his quest to recreate the ambiance of some of his more recent musical influences (Aphex Twin, Brian Eno) while drawing on the guitar techniques of some of the finger-picker guitarists of the past (Bert Jansch, Robert Johnson, Nick Drake).
On his latest release, Collected Recordings (released in May 2009), he creates an atmosphere that many artists would struggle to create on acoustic guitar.
The silence, acoustic and calming voice create a lovely place to be in. He almost seems to accompany the guitar rather than it accompany him. As far as modern acoustic albums go, this is atmospheric, poetic, graceful and beautiful. He has created a masterful album.
Very highly recommended.
In addtion, he has a love for Nick Drake’s music and currently has a project on the go in which he aims to play the songs of Nick Drake as close as possible to the way they were written, rather than interpret them in his own way. The following videos are from that project.
Some videos from the Gareth’s Nick Drake Project
Cello Song
Rider on the Wheel
Things Behind the Sun