A Modern Classical Sunday (Guitar edition) – Stationary Travels

Inspired by the long days of summer, the focus on the guitar continues in this edition of a Modern Classical Sunday featuring wonderful new releases from Jason Del Campo, Michael A. Muller, Shane Parish, and Stelios Kyriakidis. Whether you enjoy innovative approaches to composition, inventive tunings and arrangements, experimental techniques or just the pristine beauty of the solo guitar, you can find something here to enjoy.

Jason Del Campo – Atlas

Order: Bandcamp (LP) | Digital Links | Website

Paris-based artist and composer Jason Del Campo describes his new album Atlas as “a space to reimagine the classical guitar in a new realm”. Taking inspiration from Nils Frahm and his piano dampening techniques, Del Campo uses felt on his guitar picks in unique approach that emphasizes percussive sounds along with dazzling arpeggios and beautiful melodies. On this foundation more layers and colors are added from bows, special strings, and dobro to the accompaniment of a string quartet giving the album a cinematic depth to match its sonic sophistication.

I explore sound, sculpting it slowly, until something begins to pulse, to breathe. I listen closely to the grain of the instrument, to the finger sliding on wood, to the nail brushing the string, the friction of the body against the resonance box: everything that forms my intimate, deeply physical relationship with the guitar.

Jason Del Campo

Atlas was released June 19, 2026, on colored vinyl LP along with download & streaming options. The album was mastered by François Fanelli.

Michael A. Mueller – Elyria Sound

Order: Bandcamp (LP/CD/digital) | Website

We’ve enjoyed Michael A. Muller‘s music in recent years in a variety of settings from his work as part of Balmorhea as well as other collaborative projects and soundtracks. Elyria Sound takes a different and more intimate path with Muller performing on acoustic guitar which he recorded to analog tape during a January winter storm in Brooklyn. The album is intrinsically transportive being an homage to Elyria Canyon in the East Los Angeles hills where Muller began writing solo music while housesitting for a friend in 2018. To help create the sonic palette for the record, we are told Muller developed entirely new guitar tunings, effectively forcing himself to relearn the language of the guitar “from scratch”. The end result is a soothing, contemplative, and occasionally wistful listen.

Elyria Sound is an intimate homage to his sensorial world of that time: the quality of light through a kitchen window. The lull of helicopters and sirens, the blurred glimmer of city lights stretching to the night horizon. Gravel, dust, lizards, birds. Clacking bamboo, white rose, jade, fig, and lemon. A dwelling. A resting place. The comfort of an exhale, and the looming awareness that nothing stays.

Elyria Sound was released May 8, 2026, on limited CD & vinyl LP editions by Ojas Music. Download and streaming options are also available. The album was engineered by multiple Grammy award-winner Jonathan Low and features artwork by Dennis Foster

Shane Parish – Autechre Guitar

Order: https://shaneparish.bandcamp.com/album/autechre-guitar-2

In deference to readers who are fans of pioneering electronic duo Autechre, I confess a lack of familiarity with their catalog but even I can appreciate what a monumental challenge it would be to render their music on acoustic guitar which is exactly what Shane Parish does here. Prior to this project, Parish demonstrated an affinity for arranging complex songs for solo fingerstyle guitar that were originally written for other instruments and completely different genres, previously covering material from names like Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Alice Coltrane, Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin. The selection of material for Autechre Guitar is drawn entirely from albums released in the 1990s. Between its sheer inventiveness, immaculate playing, and sonic warmth, this is an album that can be enjoyed from a variety of levels.

Puzzling out the sequences. Arranging the counterpoints. Translating shades of pewter and graphite into something resembling a 12-tone scale. And, most importantly, finding ways to distill Autechre’s seemingly limitless details in ways that could be played by just 10 fingers without losing the soul of the song. It was, in essence, a kind of sleight of hand.

from album notes written by Philip Sherburne

Autechre Guitar was released February 27, 2026, by Palilalia on limited edition vinyl LP, CD, and digital download & streaming. The album was mastered by James Plotkin and features artwork and design by Bill Orcutt.

Stelios Kyriakidis – 9 Moments

Order: https://stelioskyriakidis.bandcamp.com/album/9-moments

Stelios Kyriakidis is a Greek guitarist who is based in London where he has had his music featured on BBC Radio as well as performed at numerous local venues as well as across the UK and internationally. 9 Moments is a lovely album of solo guitar which nicely blends classically oriented pieces with intimate vignettes. As hinted at in the title, the music, we are told, was inspired by “nine little moments” between the summer of 2024 & 2025 and there is indeed an aestival feel to the music which abounds in bright melodies, sprightly guitar lines, warmth, and a gentle touch of melancholy.

9 Moments was released digitally on released January 30, 2026. The album was mastered by Sean Read.