Old counterpoints for the new guitar

What sounds, practices, and collaborations emerge when the electric guitar is reoriented toward earlier musical worlds instead of being understood through the lens of modern music?

While this experiment stems from historically informed engagement with early music, it moves beyond period-instrument thinking by exploring how the technologies developed around the electric guitar invite alternative readings of repertoires and techniques not traditionally associated with plucked instruments.

The research develops through three interrelated strands. The first examines time-based digital guitar effects as tools for articulating formal recurrence, polyphonic layering, and contrapuntal imitation. The second addresses registration, rethinking guitar sound treatment in light of historical precedents — such as sympathetic resonances and organ stops — that challenge the contemporary vernacular of clean and processed sound. The third reconsiders amplification as an expansion of musical complexity and collaborative possibility across different line-ups and performance spaces.