FURSAXA (Friday, 6 pm), with her deep, deliberate voice, first calls to mind Nico, but her baroque and repetitive arrangements are reminiscent of contemporary free-folk stalwarts Charalambides and Alexander Tucker, both of whom she’s toured with on the strength of an album released on Thurston Moore’s (Sonic Youth) Ecstatic Peace label.
CIAN NUGENT (Saturday, 7 pm) is a 19-year-old instrumental guitarist from Dublin whose compositions, recorded on reel-to-reel tape, are disarmingly calm and elegant.
MICHAEL CHAPMAN (Saturday, 11 pm) has been a fixture of the UK folk scene since the late 1960s. His recent work often finds his classical guitar stylings complemented by full band arrangements, loaning a certain grace to his mournful songs, which predict what Bruce Springsteen may sound like in 25 years.
TETUZI AKIYAMA (Sunday, 10 pm) is a Japanese guitarist who experiments with tone and pacing. Both his brash electric and sparse acoustic pieces are meditative and unpredictable.
JOZEF VAN WISSEM (Sunday, 11 pm) deconstructs Renaissance-era lute compositions and has recently worked with James Blackshaw, one of the most admired young 12-string guitarists of the day.
Christopher Gray can be reached at cgray@phx.com.
