Pierre Bensusan

If ?world music? is music that pays tribute to the spirit of a collection of human beings through distinct rhythms, traditional instruments and harmonic colors, Pierre Bensusan can be recognized as one of the most eloquent and diverse world musicians of our time. Pierre's incredible guitar work was recently honored when he won the Award for Best World Music Guitar Player 2008 by Guitar Player Magazine, USA. In his solo concerts that could last nearly 3hours, and take the listener throughout the palette of emotions, between anxiety, serenity and deep joy, Bensusan weaves together the music from so many lands and so many times in history, no list of reasonable length here would suffice. And for each piece Bensusan describes as being influenced by ?a man from Iraq?, or the Middle Ages, or the essence of the Brazilian culture, each piece is informed by much more. None can be isolated as simply ?Brazilian? or ?French?; rather, they represent our world in its current state, a world sharing itself, fusing cultures together in ways we have never experienced.
Bensusan's compositions often start with melodies inspired by various folk traditions. But he develops these ideas into compositions of astonishing complexity, creating beautiful and sensuous sounds with a sense of orchestration that goes far beyond what is generally thought of as guitar music. His pieces commonly feature syncopated rhythms, unusual time signatures, and complex harmonic structures. Any guitarist who has tried to learn one of his tunes will attest to the technical challenges presented by his music. Yet mastering difficult fingerings is never the point; what interests Bensusan is the greater challenge of creating the artful statements that seems to flow effortlessly from his guitar. www.pierrebensusan.com