Athens, Georgia, guitarist Shane Parish isn’t one to shy away from a challenge (he transcribed the whole of Bill Orcutt’s Music for Four Guitars and plays as one of the Orcutt quartet), and his output is always something special, as 2024’s Repertoire, another album demanding some serious arrangement work, demonstrated. However, for his latest album, Autechre Guitar, he takes on the music of English electronic duo Autechre, an outfit known for its unconventional time signatures and experimental approach, which is a tricky task, to say the least.
Seemingly unwilling to disappoint his wife, who is a big fan of Autechre’s music, Shane set out to re-imagine and arrange ten of the band’s songs, all taken from their 1990s output. Of course, one option would have been to plug an electric guitar into a mighty effects board and loop station and start layering sound to achieve something like the intricate electronic patterns Rob Brown and Sean Booth created as Autechre, but Shane Parish doesn’t need to do this. Being a highly technical and experienced guitar player familiar with adapting a variety of musical styles to his own methods, Shane went down the ultra-minimalist route (the choice of album artwork is telling) and played the lot solo on his Taylor acoustic.
So, material aside, this is very much an instrumental solo acoustic guitar album, and in a way, it feels very organic. This is very much down to just six acoustic strings responsible for the rich, intricate music on show, but there is also a fine scattering of touches across the set that brings to mind the field recordings present in many solo recordings. Listen to the birdsong and overhead plane sounds surrounding the minor-key wanderings of Slip; these extras shed light on the music and add a sense of relaxation, aided by the easy tempo and the song’s repetitive nature.
At fifty minutes and change, this is a generous album, and the runtime gives Shane time to develop the songs and allow the patterns to unfold at leisure. Take Eutow, originally a synth-heavy dance piece, here transformed into an apparently easy melody that shifts and develops as it proceeds. And then there’s the low E string bass part that kicks in near the halfway point; how Shane maintains that tight line alongside the various melodies with no overdubs, I simply don’t know.
And these quiet touches of considerable ability are consistent across the album, so it really is a lesson in technical acoustic guitar prowess, but that takes nothing away from the enjoyment of the album at face value. The wandering rhythm of Bike is a delight, as is the more abstract blues-tinged Nine, a song that reminded me of some of Marc Ribot’s work. There are numerous points of interest; this is just one of those albums that needs to be heard many times.
I really can’t think of another acoustic player currently operating who could have taken on this project. After a few listens, the intricacy of the numerous patterns becomes clearer, with time signatures and tempos working together to create a tapestry of beautifully accomplished acoustic playing. Super clean, incredibly precise and simply a pleasure to listen to, Autechre Guitar is a stunner.
Autechre Guitar (February 27th, 2026) Palilalia Records (2xLP / CD / Digital)
Pre-Order: https://shaneparish.bandcamp.com/album/autechre-guitar-2