Shapeshifting Joe Satriani

• 1 Shapeshifting 03:55
• 2 Big Distortion 04:15
• 3 All for Love 02:34
• 4 Ali Farka, Dick Dale, an Alien and Me 03:42
• 5 Teardrops 04:11
• 6 Perfect Dust 03:31
• 7 Nineteen Eighty 03:40
• 8 All My Friends Are Here 03:24
• 9 Spirits, Ghosts and Outlaws 03:24
• 10 Falling Stars 03:44
• 11 Waiting 02:40
• 12 Here the Blue River 05:04
• 13 Yesterday's Yesterday 02:48
• Total Runtime 46:52

Info for Shapeshifting

SHAPESHIFTING, das neue Studioalbum von JOE SATRIANI wurde von SATRIANI selbst und Jim Scott (Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers) gemeinsam mit dem langjährigen musikalischen Sidekick John Cuniberti produziert, der für das Mastering verantwortlich zeichnet.

SATRIANI engagierte zudem eine Vielzahl alter und neuer Mitstreiter, um die Songs zu etwas Besonderem zu machen. Der legendäre Schlagzeuger Kenny Aronoff (John Fogerty), der Bassist Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction) und der Keyboarder Eric Caudieux waren die Hauptmusiker des neuen Albums mit zusätzlichen Beiträgen von Lisa Coleman (The Revolution) und Christopher Guest. Mit dem Retro-Feeling der ersten Single, NINETEEN EIGHTY, lässt SATRIANI gleich die Zeit Revue passieren, in der er mit seiner ersten Band, den Squares, arbeitete. Der zukünftige Gitarrenheld, den die Welt weniger als ein Jahrzehnt später kennenlernen würde, musste sich damals noch zurückhalten. Er erinnert sich, dass sie in jenen frühen Tagen auf die großen Gesten und die Gitarrensoli verzichtet wurde, um eine coolere New-Wave-Stimmung zu erzeugen. Jahrzehnte später und von diesen Zwängen befreit, geht er vorwärts und kann gleichzeitig greifen, was ihn damals bewegte. Er blieb den Klängen der Zeit insofern treu, indem er z.B. einen alten MXR EVH-Phaser verwendete. Ich war schon immer ein großer Fan von Eddie Van Halen, sagt SATRIANI. In meinen Augen hat er gerade diese Ära bestimmt. In den späten 70ern und frühen 80ern rettete er quasi die Rockgitarre. Das hätte ich genauso getan. Die Studio- und Live-Aufnahmen von SATRIANI wurden denn auch bis heute weltweit über 10 Millionen Mal verkauft. Von seinen zahlreichen Soloalben wurden zwei mit Platin und vier mit Gold ausgezeichnet, auch 15 Grammys Nominierungen haben sich angesammelt. Mit SHAPESHIFTING eröffnet er das nächste Kapitel in dieser Reihe.

"... ein erstaunlich irdisches Rockalbum." (Audio)

Joe Satriani, electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, whistling, claps
Chris Chaney, basses, additional rhythm guitar on "Falling Stars"
Kenny Aronoff, drums
Eric Caudieux, keyboards, sound design, editing, percussion, whistling, claps
Lisa Coleman, piano on "Waiting" and "Yesterday's Yesterday"
Christopher Guest, mandolin on "Yesterday's Yesterday"
Jim Scott, percussion, whistling, claps
Neil Baldock, claps

Recorded and Mixed by Jim Scott and PLYRZ Recording Studio Valencia
Additional engineeering by Kevin Dean, Neil Baldock and Benjamin Knapp
Additional recording at Studio 21, San Francisco by Joe Satriani
Mastering by John Cuniberti
Produced by Jim Scott and Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani
Storming onto the music scene nearly a decade ago, Joe Satriani has been widely recognized as the archetypal post-modern hero.

Since his emergence in 1986 with a self-released, self-titled debut album, Joe has become the most recognizable guitar voice of his time, earning his place alongside the great masters of rock guitar. As an instrumental artist in a pop-dominated field, Satriani's accomplishments are even more remarkable: He is perhaps the most successful rock instrumentalist in recent history, selling millions of records and consistently packing concert halls - yet always preserving a strong musical vision, as well as the respect of fellow musicians and forward-thinking music fans worldwide.

Satriani's gift is creating highly evolved instrumental music, using the structure of popular standard songs that allows listeners to latch onto tuneful melodies before being dazzled by his acclaimed musicianship. His hallmarks are a warm, bluesy tone and delicate phrasing, combined with the bursts of superhuman technical facility which upped the ante well beyond the standards set by generations of great rock musicians before him.

Satriani's latest disc, Crystal Planet - his first studio album for Epic Records - reunites the guitarist with G3 Live in Concert producer Mike Fraser, and finds the artist at a new peak of inspiration. From the pounding crunch and sizzling harmonics of "Up in the Sky," to the delicate strains of the solo closer "ZZ's Song," Crystal Planet ranks with Satriani's most adventurous and accessible discs.

Crystal Planet teams Satriani with bassist Stuart Hamm and drummer Jeff Campitelli, two longtime collaborators who lend rich support to the album's striking variety of tunes. Satriani unleashes his heralded sounds and techniques throughout the album, reaching apocalyptic extremes on the title track and "Time." Typically, his soloing never disappoints, and on such new pieces as "Trundumbalind" and "With Jupiter in Mind," he hits new heights of stun-guitar artistry. Tunes like the moody "A Piece of Liquid" conjure cooler, more subdued atmospheres which balance the record's intensity.

Elsewhere on the album, Satriani revisits the familiar sound that demanded the attention of millions of pop fans: "A Train of Angles" creates the joyous pop mood heard in such classic Satriani radio hits as "Summer Song." On new tunes like "Raspberry Jam Delta-V," the melodies escalate into passages so stunning, it's difficult to believe they were performed with just two hands on a single instrument.

Joe Satriani was born in Westbury, New York, and began playing guitar at age 14. By 1971, he was teaching guitar to others, one of his students being Steve Vai. In 1974, Joe studied with two modern jazz masters, guitarist Billy Bauer and pianist/composer Lennie Tristano; four years later, he moved to Berkeley, California, where he began a 10-year guitar teaching career with students including David Bryson (Counting Crows), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Larry LaLonde (Primus), and Charlie Hunter, among others. In 1984, Joe released a self-titled five-song EP on his own Rubina label, and the following year completed his first full-length album Not Of This Earth, which was financed on a credit card and released in 1986 on Relativity Records.

In October 1987, Relativity released Satriani's second album Surfing With The Alien. The record became a global phenomenon, going platinum with sales of over a million copies in the U.S. alone and landing Satriani's face on the covers of such magazines as Guitar Player, Musician, Guitar World, and dozens of other international publications. Surfing With The Alien was a landmark release which showcased the guitarist's stunning array of composing, playing , and producing talents. Consequently and deservedly, it became the most successful instrumental rock record since Jeff Beck's Wired.

Each subsequent Satriani release - including Flying In A Blue Dream, The Extremist, Time Machine and the recent Joe Satriani, which was produced by the legendary Glyn Johns - has drawn great commercial and critical attention. The same seems certain to be the case with Crystal Planet, and it's not just Joe's fans who have been moved by his unique tone and feel: Players from all walks of musical life have been attracted to Satriani's work.

After sitting in with Joe's band at New York's Bottom Line, Mick Jagger recruited Joe in 1988 as lead guitarist for the singer's very first tour apart from the Rolling Stones. Deep Purple tapped into Satriani's mastery when he assumed lead guitar position in the band for its 1994 tours of Europe and Japan. In 1996, the G3 Tour - featuring Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Eric Johnson - played 24 dates to some 90,000 fans across North America, a tour documented on the G3 Live In Concert album and home video (both Epic). In 1997, Joe united with jazz guitar great Pat Martino to record two tracks, "Ellipsis" and "Never and After," for Martino's acclaimed all-star collection All Sides Now (Blue Note); and enlisted in a second G3 summer tour, this one co-starring Steve Vai, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Robert Fripp.

With its cunning marriage of well-structured songs, challenging sonic surprises, moody moments and breathtaking guitar playing, Crystal Planet has all the marks of a great Joe Satriani disc. After a decade of ground breaking work, this is one musician still willing to push the edge of conventional rock beyond what's come before.

This album contains no booklet.