ALBUM:
Along the Way
TAYLOR USED:
814c
810
SONG CLIPS:
In The Distance
28K | 56K | MP3
Fingers Crossed
28K | 56K | MP3
CONTACT INFO:
P.O. Box 0937
Farmington, MI 48335
E-mail:
sonatablue @earthlink .net
Web:
www. fourhands .net
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The writer Maxwell Bodenheim once observed that poetry is the "impish attempt to paint the color of the wind."
The progressive soundscapes shaped by the instrumental duo Four Hands - Michael Varverakis and Jeff
Hartshorn - yield the equivalent of sonic paintings, colored and contoured with a palette of
acoustic, electric and midi guitars; keyboards, wood drum, congas, chimes, cymbals, and other
hand percussion. Over an acoustic guitar foundation, Four Hands fuses together its many
eclectic influences, from the avant garde ambient loops of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno,
to new age, jazz, Eastern, African, classical, and other evocative idioms, to the
innovative styles of Miles Davis, Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin and Eddie Van Halen. The
result is an original collection of reflective, expansive excursions through pastoral,
exotic, and mystical terrain. Each note is like the short brush stroke of an impressionist
painter, and bridges inner and outer worlds with the slow grace of a cloud wafting across
the sky. As Four Hands finds rich texture through subtle movement, the evocative effect of
Along the Way is the creation of fluid aural visions that envelop the listener with rhythms,
timbres, and circular motifs. On the surface, their music is new age, but it's a thoughtfully
sculpted ambience that amounts to more than just repeated arpeggios in alternate tunings.
Both Varverakis and Hartshorn grew up in the Detroit area, and have been playing together
for over 12 years. Varverakis took up piano at age 7 and guitar at 16, later studying
music theory at Wayne State University. Hartshorn has been a percussionist and guitarist
for 15 years. The two met at a community college, and started playing together regularly
for two hours at a time.
"At first, out of these two-hour sessions, we had maybe five to ten minutes of what
resembled music," says Varverakis on the duo's website. "As the years passed...that
grew to half an hour, and then finally, the entire session."
As Four Hands, the two has released four self-produced CDs, and also appears on
the compilation CD, Dreamcatchers Vol. IV, a music project to benefit Native American peoples.
Varverakis and Hartshorn used Taylors exclusively on the Along the Way. Of his 814c,
Varverakis says: "I stopped looking for a guitar the day I bought my Taylor. It's the
first guitar I have been absolutely satisfied with. I've gone through a ton of guitars
from different makers. Since beginning to do studio work and play live with this guitar,
I haven't even considered trying anything else."
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