Genre-blurring instrumental interpreters will put their stamp on ELLNORA | The Guitar Festival in 2013.Jason Pierce aka J. Spaceman has fronted the rapturous British indie rock band Spiritualized for over 20 years. In 2006, his first solo album, Guitar Loops, arrived, and since then, his life has been filled to the brim with near-death experiences, parenthood, a soundtrack for the Harmony Korine flick Mister Lonely, and collaborations with Dr. John, Primal Scream, and Yoko Ono. Through these travels and with his new album Sweet Heart Sweet Light (dedicated to the late Jim Dickinson, father of fellow ELLNORA artist Luther Dickinson), J. Spaceman has arrived at an evolved artistic junction of underground rock roots, passionate musical imagery, and tender moments of reflective melancholy—all guaranteed new exaltation in Krannert Center’s world-renowned Foellinger Great Hall.Buke and Gase, the Brooklyn-based Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez, take that unusual moniker from two self-made instruments: a baritone ukulele crafted from a Volvo hood—the ”buke”—and an alternately guitar- and bass-stringed “gase.” With fans such as ELLNORA alums The National, Arone and Aron’s revolutionary chamber punk moves through grungy grooves and seething lyricism to create a hyperkinetic new musical experience.The looped effects of El Ten Eleven’s drummer Tim Fogarty are the only augmentation needed for Kristian Dunn’s virtuosic doubleneck guitar/bass instrumentation. In addition to almost eight solid years of touring and five studio albums, this power duo has added to its resume and fleshed out a fan base with television soundtracks, a Lexus commercial, and original scores and music for Gary Hustwit’s design documentary trilogy—Helvetica, Objectified, and Urbanized. Summoning an impressively layered sound without the aid of post-rock electronica laptops, El Ten Eleven delivers emotional hooks and flying bass lines in a wordless wave of sound.A raffle-won guitar and the musical pedigree of his composer/vocalist/pianist father Terry Riley may have started Gyan Riley off on the right path, but it was his uncanny ear and diverse musical palette that earned him the first full scholarship in guitar at the San Francisco Conservatory. Collaborations with Zakir Hussain, Dawn Upshaw, and the San Francisco Symphony and appearances at Carnegie Hall and London’s Barbican Theatre quickly followed, earning him a reputation as a fresh voice in classical guitar with “mind blowing chops” (Acoustic Guitar).The full lineup for ELLNORA | The Guitar Festival at Krannert Center (September 5-7, 2013) will be released on June 11. Please visit EllnoraGuitarFestival.com for information on previous festivals and for up-to-the-minute announcements.About ELLNORA | The Guitar Festival: Krannert Center for the Performing Arts is situated on the campus of the University of Illinois, in the micro-urban community of Champaign-Urbana, and is North America’s premier university-based performing arts complex. ELLNORA | The Guitar Festival (originally called the Wall to Wall Guitar Festival), held biennially, was launched in 2005 and through its eclectic global mix has presented many of the world’s most influential guitarists and bands, including Buddy Guy, Ani DiFranco, Luther Dickinson, Jerry Douglas, Pepe Romero, John McLaughlin, Bill Frisell, Vernon Reid, Derek Trucks, Richard Thompson, Kaki King, Andy Summers, The National, Los Lobos, and the North Mississippi Allstars.
