Patrick Higgins Dossier
(Other People Records)
Hudson avant-garde guitarist and composer Patrick Higgins’s collaborations with his long-time foils in the New York band Zs and the likes of Arto Lindsay and Miho Hatori, not to mention the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and other ensembles that have performed his works, are justly revered. But running through his many fruitful collaborations is the underlying feeling that he truly flourishes as a player when he’s on his own. Untethered from settings that necessitate his allowing fellow musicians their space, the unaccompanied Higgins revels in the opportunity to stretch out and shift the music according only to his own internal twists and whims. If you’ve caught his shamanic solo performances, you’ll have a sense of this. If not, Dossier, a four-movement solo suite of guitar and live custom electronics, will give you one. Dark, sprawling, and apocalyptically atmospheric, it’s packed with pins-and-needles tension that springs a surprise around every corner. Transformative listening.
—Peter Aaron
This article appears in November 2019.
