1-282
2-DRAGON.GEMINI
3-YOUNGE BLUES
4-...
5-CRAZY STAMP
6-ENDING
7-...SWINGING...
8-THE AIRPORT
9-EARTH BRAIN
10-MANDELBROT´S SILENCE
11-DEVINE A QUI JE PENSE?

Etude Records is proud to present the first release statement of this unexpected and amazing guitar/ composer/ musician call Jose Luis Redondo. His first release for Etude Records “La reponse est aux pieds” (Etude017) is an astonishing 11 tracks suite with some of the most adventurous guitar pieces. Using a whole range of string  instruments (Dobro, banjo, electric guitar, piccolo bass, etc…), Jose Luis develops an amazing and unique personal world of sounds, techniques and compositions. Beautiful, bizarre , strange and lovely!

Jose Luis Redondo is a well know musician from Barcelona whose work has appear in tons of different session recordings with local groups, from the Jazz/space/cabaret records of Le Diablo Mariachi, the traditional irish/funk music of Camalics, to the Gallegan/experimental work of Keympa. His solos shows at some squads are also remembered.

"In Josep's Hands: Perhaps a new chameleon.these arco,pizzicato glissandi of enveloped harmonically rich durations that struggle against the tyranny of fourths. Tempered with blue frequencies and at times free of the tonic it is an instrument of silence as well. But, alas it is also an instrument of massive contrasts and bound by string theory. Josep's implimentation of string theory that is." -Eugene Martynec (London 2008)

Just a couple of months after the sensationally received “Cancons per a un lent retard”, Ferran Fages’ cathartic 
not-coming-to-terms-with-reality, Etude Records are back with yet another release guided by the spartanic approach of one man and 
his guitar. Despite the obvious similarities, however, “La Reponse est aux Pieds” holds its own as an album with plenty of personal 
mysteries lurking behind the surface.

For starters, the extended set-up of the record is an important factor in its appeal. Jose Luis Redondo has included Dobro, Barotone Guitar, a “bizarre piccolo bass” and banjo in these sessions, noticeably adding colours and shades to his instrumentals. While the live-approach of “La Reponse est aux Pieds” implies a certain monochromatic touch within individual movements, the album as a whole feels highly varied and almost playful, despite its often slightly sombre and disturbed moods: Redondo toys with the physical capacities of his tools to create complex reverb spaces and on “Ending”, he even plugs his guitar into an amplifier, creating raw canvasses filled with distortion and feedback.

The diversity between tracks not only exponentially increases the listenability of the record, but also gratifyingly moves it away from a mere research in timbre. Redondo keeps a red thread in mind for the album as a whole, but his pieces are meant to be appreciated on their own and, more often than not, as “songs” without words. Grouped just as much around musical themes as on performance techniques, there is an immediacy to this work, that feels refreshing. Academical connotations have been replaced with joyous improvisations and the pensive depression of Fages has made way for a positively whimsical sense of scurrility.

As with many releases from the still young catalogue of Etude, one needs to search for parallels in the visual arts, rather than with other composers. “La Reponse est aux Pieds” plucks and tears the guitar’s strings and maltreats them with various objects, imitating the sound of a saw working its way through piles of logs. Redondo takes a naive route, but he comes crashing from all different directions, presenting us with a multiangle view of the guitar in its most basic state: Quiet quasi-folk, soundscapes, seemingly uncoordinated fretboard runs, noise erruptions and effect pedal doodling taped both right in front of the instrument as well as from the other side of the room make for a obsessively complete picture.
It is only logical that the set closes with a blues, which under the circumstances may justifiedly be called “traditional”. Redondo does not want to start with form only to destroy it, but arrives at form as the result of a search, which looks at his instruments with the eyes of a child. To arrive at this kind of limpid clarity, one must either be a genial fool or a lucid professional. The latter applies to our man here, an experienced session musician in his hometown of Barcelona, but that doesn’t make his cubistic “one man and a guitar” excursions any less intriguing. -TOBIAS FISHER (TOKAFI)

Ah, people who know the guitar so well they begin to play it in a way that sounds like they just bought it hours before rule. I don’t have the most remarkably trained ear; rather, I tend to judge music more on its effect than on its process. So experimenting with an instrument, particularly the guitar, goes only so far in my book. There needs to be a heart pulsing somewhere beneath the wankery, so that a connection can be made beyond “Dude, this dude’s like painting a fence with his axe and recording it.” Jose Luis Redondo walks that thin line with “La Reponse Est Aux Pieds,” and while the majority of the eleven pieces flirt gratuitously with aimless determination and a what-can-I-use-to-scrape-this-with mentality, the overall core is one of emotion. Tracks like “Dragon Gemini” seem as though Redondo is listening to whale songs on headphones and playing with his hand in a cast, but still a humanity pervades even the least melodious of the phrases. “Crazy Stamp” is Fahey with nearly all the notes skimmed off the top, leaving only a fast-forwarded hint of what could have been a beautiful (and less interesting) piece. “Ending” throws you for a loop with its intense feedback and reined-in distortion and is immediately a standout. “Mandelbrot’s Silence” is the best and strangest offering, shuttling between ominous drone and strumming and each point of the spectrum between. “Devine a Qui Je Pense?” closes the album on a positively bluesy note, and even if it does sound like Redondo is warming up to sell his soul at the crossroads, it’s all the more gorgeous for that. The record might only chime with hidden emotion, but it shines through secretly, and the heart doesn’t need the ears to pick up on it. 8/10 - Michael Wehunt (FOXY DIGITALIS)

Looking for heirs to the throne of kings Frith, Kaiser, Reichel? Among the ones who might want to aspire to this role one day let me introduce you to Mr. Jose Luis Redondo from Barcelona, here at his solo CD debut after "tons of different session recordings with local groups" and live performances. "La reponse est aux pieds" was created with an array of string instruments including dobro, banjo, guitars, piccolo bass. Mostly they're played with half-extended, half-traditional techniques (sometimes what we know as "extended" has become accepted as normal, see the "pick-behind-the-bridge" approach). Redondo is good at what he does, which mainly deals with exploring acoustic nuances - he employs a nice slide, too - and processing strings quite clearly, by pitch transposing them or altering their timbre with objects, pedals or heaven knows what else. If it's true that the forerunners of the genre created masterpieces by the dozen already thirty years ago - and following such a historic wealth of great records in 2008 is definitely uneasy - it must be told that this kind of gestural/textural improvisation with an ounce of deformed bluesy attitude can still entertain an audience, or at the very least this old fart of a writer. In any case, I'll always prefer someone who seems to be able to determine the sweet (and sour) spots in a stringed instrument to button-pushing priests armed with six synthesizers and a sampler going "oooooooohhhhhhhh" (and a couple of rain sticks in the background). At least, this record comprises music that vibrates and pulsates for real; that only makes it worthy of an attentive try.-MASSIMO RICCI (TOUCHING EXTREMES)

José Luis Redondo turns in La Reponse est aux Pieds (ETUDE016), a philosophical observation on which he delivers himself of 11 snappy pieces played on various steel-stringed instruments. Promising sounds on this crisp recording; mentally, I’m filing it not far away from Tetuzi Akiyama and Woody Sullender. -ED PINSET (THE SOUND PROJECTOR)

Jose Luis Redondo sounds hell-bent on coaxing every imaginable sound from his string arsenal (dobro, a.c baritone guitar, bizarre piccolo bass, electric guitar and banjo) on La reponse est aux pieds, an often amazing fifty-five minute live set (no overdubs). Here's that rare case where a video presentation actually would prove illuminating in revealing the techniques the Barcelona musician's using to generate his instruments' sounds. Redondo is a fearless experimentalist who's less interested in lyricism than exploration, the kind of player who approaches his instrument from every possible angle except the conventional one. When not generating glissandi effects in “282,” he's seemingly caught up in both a wrestling and sawing match, while “Earth Brain” pushes the mutilation theme to the extreme. By contrast, “Crazy Stamp” parades a hyper-rapid banjo attack, and “Ending” simmers with ear-aching feedback fire. Breaking up the flow, short tracks—one just eighteen seconds long—alternate with fully-developed ones on this slightly over-long set. “The Airport” offers some welcome moments of pensive restraint as Redondo's rising and falling tones suggests a plane's movements over open spaces. The bluesy closer “Devine a qui je pense?” offers a refreshingly straightforward account of Redondo's virtuosic ability. La reponse est aux pieds may be hardly musical in the normal sense of the word but it certainly is audacious. -TEXTURA

Jose Luis Redondo är gitarrvirtuos, som gör en sannskyldig uppvisning i hur han kan locka oväntade ljud ur dobro, bariton-, bas-, elgitarr och banjo. I grunden igenkänns jazz och blues. Klangerna är rena, instrumentet förfrämligas inte, det ”bara” behandlas förhållandevis konventionellt och skickligt. Upp stiger en rad karaktärsstycken för de olika gitarrerna. Det betyder att det klangliga späckas med olika dramatiska associationer. Det blir till slut som teater eller opera. Jag bara väntar på den hårresande kulmen. Den inträffar i nästan varje stycke. Som ljuvlig skönsång eller omruskande tonklungor; eller litet lustiga vändningar. Han är noga med poängen! Oväntat dyker till exempel fragment av gamla örhänget ”As time goes by” upp.

Jag får stor respekt för Redondos förmåga att spela gitarr på uppseendeväckande sätt; men jag saknar en genomgående konstnärlig vilja och tanke. Kommer orättvist att tänka på Loren Connors oemotståndliga besatthet. Något sådant hade behövts. -Thomas Millroth (SOUND OF MUSIC)

Músico del entorno de Pau Torres, Redondo recupera el formato en solitario de Fagés con guitarra (banjo, dobro, eléctrica) desde una perspectiva que no explora tanto el rastro armónico de la cuerda pulsada como el propio proceso de pulsar, rasgar, rozar con arco, tensar y destensar las cuerdas. La extrañeza de la propuesta aumenta cuando se intercalan erráticos acordes blues y en una inaudita exploración, fundamentalmente acústica, del instrumento. -Jesús Gonzalo (revistamu.com)