I had the opportunity to attend the concert of Estas Tonne and Michael Shrieve at the Vegas city hallin Moscow, on April XNUMX, XNUMX, during theIntegration tour.
to us Estas Tonne since playing on the street in 2012 and his videos bounced on various youtube channels, presenting him as a guitarist-phenomenon (the song Golden Dragon has exceeded 60 million views).
Creator of a gypsy-spiritual-electronic genre, he is idolized by fans all over the world for his intimate and transcendental way of interpreting his songs with his magnetic presence. Landed in New York shortly after the attack on the twin towers in 2001, he transformed from a simple street guitarist into a respectable performer, beating theaters and auditoriums around the world with over 2000 concerts to his credit.
Born in Soviet Ukraine, he likes to call himself a nomad. Just in his vast wandering, he knows in Australia Michael Shrieve who, as Estas told during the concert, had seen him on the web and asked him to play with him on the street, wherever possible. Estas was headed for Australia at the time and Michael kept his word, deciding to follow him on a transcontinental flight.
This is how this partnership was born with a first concert in Seattle in November 2018.
Michael Shrieveneeds a few introductions. Class of 'XNUMX, he is known to have been Santana's drummer in the legendary Woodstockin XNUMX and later for having played on all the band's albums from 'XNUMX to 'XNUMX. To his credit he has recordings of concerts with bands and soloists as Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, John McLaughlin, Bill Frisell, Fredy Hubbard...
Since 1998 he is in the Rock Hall of Fames with Santana and in 2011 the readers of Rolling Stone Magazine they counted him among the ten best drummers in the world.
But let's get to the concert.
Let's start by saying that it cannot be defined as a concert in the classical sense of the term; it is a mystical, sensorial experience, a path between sound intertwining that follows more emotional than musical rules, with rhythms that increase and decrease, improvisations, absence of pauses between the songs (which leaves the audience a little applause anxiety), dynamics that change suddenly.
The concert begins with a soft blue light, a kind of Om in the background, with Estas alone on stage lighting an incense stick, a sort of ritual, then extinguishing it with a particular movement of the arm that recalls that of a priest with his censer. The incense stick is then stuck onto the headstock of the guitar. Estas with a soft, almost suffering voice introduces the show and begins.
Everything points to some sort of sound ritual more than at a real concert.
All this will last as long as two incense sticks ...
Then Shrieve enters, while the song is still in progress, and a rhythmic part begins at first a little confused, then more defined.
If we leave the mystical atmosphere of the event, the concert is a continuous improvisation - more or less structured - around minor chords made even more severe by the prolongation of the reverberation and effects notes.
It is a kind of mantra that repeats itself, without ever evolving (as mantras typically are).
Estas is certainly very good with the dynamics of volumes and manages to create different atmospheres with a few notes. Shrieve follows the flow accentuating moods with drums, where required, and staying on the sidelines with light tinkles or brushes where needed.
The impression is that sometimes the duo is a bit detached from the context, like two good musicians who play together on the same stage but each looking for their own space.
Estas' amplifier often goes into saturation, probably due to a specific choice of the player, since the thing repeats itself as if it were the search for a different sound, a sort of whitenoise.
The only song with a beginning and an end is the "lullaby”Final, which has a more traditional structure.
I was at the concert with four people: one cried, two were bored, one had already seen Tonne solo and found the drums a bit disturbing, I'd say it's a good case study!
The effect pedals by Estas Tonne
All the sounds produced in the show are generated by the guitars and electronic pedals. For gear enthusiasts, as a guitarist, I tried to rebuild the instrumentation (also based on other sources and photos).
I miss the recognition of the white effect at the bottom of the photo, I would say that it is a pedal from the Boss series: if anyone has suggestions, they can leave them in a footnote to the article.
Good music everyone!
