Akchote, Noel

*** The polyphonic music of late Renaissance composer CARLO GESULADO (1566–1613) still fascinates for its forward-looking chromaticism and its stark, unpredictable shifts in character. His Fifth and Sixth Books of Madrigals from 1611 construct a world of their own—a distinctive body of work that has found adherents as diverse as Igor Stravinsky (who orchestrated Gesualdo madrigals in his 1960 Momentum pro Gesualdo ), Werner Herzog (who directed the macabre, fanciful 1995 Gesualdo documentary Death for Five Voices ), and now the French guitarist NOEL AKCHOTE. Gesualdo’s madrigals are scored for five voices, and Akchoté was intrigued to discover that the pitch range of the Fifth Book of Madrigals exactly matches the range of the Renaissance lute—an instrument that Gesualdo himself played. Under Akchoté’s direction, the five equal voices of these madrigals are transformed into five equal electric guitars in what in theory would seem a crazily heterogeneous ensemble, featuring Julien Desprez (Acapulco), David Grubbs (Gastr del Sol, Belfi / Grubbs / Pilia), Adam Levy (Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, etc.), and Doug Wamble (Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson). And yet, Gesualdo: Madrigals for Five Guitars is nothing if not a coherent massing of five otherwise distinctive approaches to the guitar—just as Akchoté envisioned it.