TAM DE VILLIERS

For the the best part of a decade, the quartet of British-born guitarist Tam de Villiers (now firmly established in France) has been striving for musical authenticity, compositional originality and honest group interplay. Avoiding pastiche of the past and present, and deftly side-stepping the fleeting musical trends of the moment, their aim has been to explore a personal take on the human experience, defying genres and period. Resolutely idiosyncratic, the music of Tam de Villiers surprises the listener with a melting pot of influences seamlessly combined into an original voice. What starts out as a jazz piece leads into a contrapuntal baroque fantasie, then veers off into abrasive progressive rock, skimming past rockabilly twangs before plunging into a trance inducing minimalist motif. Yet despite the apparent eclecticism, there is a carefully crafted archetypal balance underpinning the form that brings a sense of classical coherence to the notes, both written and improvised. read more...