Album Notes

Ryan Francesconi is one of the most awe-inspiring musicians I've known. On "Parables," he distills his many realms of artistry -- his unmistakable compositional voice, his mastery of bulgarian folk technique and form, his comprehensive classical background, and his virtuoso, incomparable mind-melting guitar stylings -- into a beautifully minimalist, poetic, intricate, emotionally realized study of themes, variations, organic counterpoint, and such devastating forays into fractal-metric out-lands that it is nearly impossible to believe he's picking those strings with just one hand. This is solo music that sounds like an ensemble, an ecstatic and measured reconciliation of West African / Balkan / Baroque / bluegrass influences, which ultimately resembles nothing I know.

- Joanna Newsom, February 2010