Guitar & Forest
Each forest has its own sound, there is a different light in each, there is a different natural magic according to the season, there are different inhabitants living in and it altogether plays music and it sounds of a never ending forest song.
An idea came to me. How would it work to travel around the Czech country and visit different kinds of woods (beech wood, spruce grove, oak wood, pine grove...) with my guitar and recording equipment and try to catch the atmosphere of the place just in a couple of minutes, every month in one guitar instrumental piece. To do it with a respect to the environment, temperature, wind and try to record the piece at once, without adornment and without all the convenience of the modern studio. Only a man, a guitar and the forest.
If it would work, there will be an album with twelve guitar instrumental pieces. After listening to which the listener can have a feeling of flying in the harmonies through the forest covers and he can feel like the “forest year” passes by within forty five minutes.
So we shall see and hear how successful I will be...
John
- Guitar & Forest - December 2012
My thanks to Zeno for his support during my last forest tour, for keeping the fire and for taking the photos. I thank Ms.Winter, that she wasn’t too tough with frost in December and she let me perform my limping ragtime without cold burns. I thank a friend, who knows everything about the “ten stairs” phenomenon, he listens at nights at full blast not only to solo guitar players and he treats them with drinks and provides them with a roof. I thank his wife for the incredible beef steak and for the whole care that felt like at a chateau. I thank all of you, who have joined me in the forest.
- Guitar & Forest - November 2012
I thank my friends, the Trliciks family, for the baggers gloves without fingers. They were finally useful and were warming me up like a little woollen stove. I thank Stanka for crawling on the ground with the camera, the pictures are very nice and worth it. I thank mum and dad for the two bags of wood, although I did not need it this time, but it may come handy next time. I thank the inventors of maj chords, as this stuff across the seven guitar frets fits perfectly well into the November melancholy.
- Guitar & Forest - October 2012
I thank my parents for the dry wood I brought to the forest with me. I could have played the October harmony thanks to it in that surprising icy kingdom at the top of Kelecsky Javornik. I thank the producers of the winter tyres, that when it comes to it, the car doesn’t move a shit and creeps up the hill. I thank my wife Stanka for her support and the colourful photographs. And I thank my guitar for the great sound in the strange forest concert hall of the Hostyn hills.
- Guitar & Forest - September 2012
I thank my right hand that it recovered after all, because I was close to bite it off and throw it away to a blueberry bush during the recording. I thank my muse, who showed me dragon teeth in a dream; the piece came because of her. I thank Stanka for the autumn pictures full of colours and for the fact that she managed it again. I thank Google for its detailed maps and I thank Jura for being a car park attendant in Orlicke hory for couple of hours.
- Guitar & Forest - August 2012
I thank to people living around Rataje nad Sazavou for the fact that at least for now they have spoiled the plans of a mining company, that wants to mine in the hills starting with stone and then probably continue with uranium. I thank to Ivan for his support and for finding Petr for me. I thank Petr for his determination to take photographs for nothing. I thank to the cold drops of needle water for their refreshing icy kisses on my shoulders and forehead. I thank to the guys from Dire Straits for helping me finish this composition and I thank to Stanka, that she found them there, told it to me and from now I will hear them there forever.
- Guitar & Forest - July 2012
I thank to the Croatians living by the river Jevisovka in the 16th century for planting the willows in the water meadow, because it was not very easy to find an area with a willow grove. I thank to the inventors of chemicals for inventing the insect repellent, there definitely wasn’t mosquitoesfree in the reeds. There were about 1000 mosquitoes per m3. Thanks to Stanka for coping with the bad weather and that she was able to fight her way through the animals’ paths with her camera and that she pressed the shutter release, so we have pictures to look at. I thank to the rain for stopping a letting me sound.
- Guitar & Forest - June 2012
I thank to Snape for showing us his secret birch place, where he talks time to time to Wakan Tanka about the eternal question, I thank to Martina from Raci udoli (Cancer valley) for her hospitality and for her smile, that will gladly bring us back to Rychlebske mountains, I thank to giant exemplars of wild pigs for letting me pass with my guitar while impishly grunting to my steps, I thank to the twilling, which came into me for a little while during recording and gave me the conciliatory peace and I thank to Stanka for being with me.
- Guitar & Forest - May 2012
I thank to the fire fighters for not letting the flames eating the whole pine beauty on the sandbank around Bzenec. Thanks to Stanka for her company and the sense she has when she looks around and takes photos. Thanks to mosquitoes, that they did not suck all my patience and thanks to the sun, that it stayed above the pine trees little bit longer and it went down after the last tone.
- Guitar & Forest - April 2012
I thank to Marek Kamínek for beautiful photographs and especially for making the decision and going to the forest with me, although we had not known each other before. Thanks to the old bones of the beech trees that none of them chose my head while falling down or even worse my guitar. Thanks to a mouse with beautiful eyes for staying along for a little while.
- Guitar & Forest - March 2012
I thank to the god of computers that he gave me back my ill PC from the other world. Thanks to the god of weather that he didn´t trouble me with rain or snow in studio and thanks to Stanka for her sight and heart at the camera, it would be sad in the forest or on the website without her.
- Guitar & Forest - February 2012
I thank to Drnkalek and Gustik for being my guiders along the river. Thanks to Stanka for wonderful photos and ginger tea that she charmed with the fire. Thanks to the Metelkas for amazing late lunch and very pleasant company at Brigadnicka that you never get fed up with.
- Guitar & Forest - January 2012
I thank to Michal for beautiful photographs, thanks to Jirka for lending me the snowshoes and snow-chains, thanks to Pip for being willing to go to the forest with me, although the weather changed the plan finally, thanks to some unknown local, who gave me the right direction and thanks to Stanka for support from under the blankets during her flu.