Pierre Bensusan w/ Michael Gulezian

French acoustic guitar virtuoso, vocalist, and composer Pierre Bensusan, surnamed “Mister DADGAD”, has taken his unique sound to all corners of the globe.

Winner of the Independent Music Award for his triple live album "Encore", voted Best World Music Guitarist by Guitar Player Magazine readers’ Poll, winner of the Rose d’Or at the Montreux Festival for his debut album, Pierre is recognized as one of the greatest guitar players of the 21st century.

When Michael Hedges titles one of his compositions “Bensusan”, you know that the inspiration behind it must be special, and Pierre Bensusan certainly is. Guitarists from Leo Kottke to Larry Corryel, to Tuck Andress, Tommy Emmanuel, Mark Knopfler, Andrew York, Andy Timmons, Pat Metheny, and Steve Lukather… have sung his praises, and Steve Vai released three Bensusan albums on his label Favored Nations. And it's not just guitarists who are so inspired by Pierre's music, as a recent studio collaboration with him on Donny Osmond’s latest album “Start Again” goes to show.

If World Music means the fusion of traditional, contemporary, jazz, classical, and pop music, then Bensusan is one of the most eloquent World Music musicians of our time. A pianist in his beginnings, then self-taught on the guitar, the originality of his style makes him one of today’s greatest guitarists and composers for the instrument. Also called “The Prince of DADGAD”, his story is far from trivial, and it is on stage that this artist has earned his stripes: among others, the Rose d'Or of the Montreux Festival, and being elected Best Guitarist of World Music by the readers of Guitar Player Magazine! His triple album "Encore" won the Grand Prix at the Independent Music Awards in the Best Live Album category... Since his first performances in 1974 in France, the guitarist has sold half a million albums and given thousands of concerts around the globe, both solo and through numerous collaborations.

Pierre Bensusan is an adventurer of unusual lands. His music is an intimate and orchestral hymn, a solo crossing on a multi-shell Lowden guitar subjected to the natural elements with sound molecules and finger pulp on an ebony fingerboard for open tuning - a unique and transparent technique, under the fingers of an adventurous pilgrim. 

https://www.pierrebensusan.com/



Michael Gulezian (gu-LAY-ze-in) is one of the most highly acclaimed solo acoustic instrumental guitarists of our time. He’s a phenomenal technical guitarist with the rare ability to transcend his own virtuosity, creating music that touches and moves people at the deepest level – boundary-free, mind-opening, emotionally imbued, radiant, horizon-expanding, spiritually inspired, genre-bending, conformity-crushing, kickass, transcendent, soulful, deliriously joyful, exquisitely gorgeous instrumental solo acoustic guitar music – music that quite literally defies description. Fred Kraus, of Minor 7th .com recently wrote that Gulezian “might be the most accomplished pure guitarist on the planet.” He’s been called the musical link between John Fahey and Michael Hedges. Artists as diverse as Michael Hedges, Willy Porter, and Henry Kaiser have claimed him as a primary musical influence; young lions Erik Mongrain, Andy McKee, and Trevor Gordon Hall are quick to acknowledge him as an inspiration. In concert, Michael is all warmth and humor … and though it’s visually breathtaking to watch him perform, a concert with Michael is more than a display of cutting-edge virtuosity – it is the passionate communion of master musician engaged with his audience in the mystery of self-revelation, creating music of atmospheric power, ecstatic joy, and haunting beauty. Michael has an online audience at Pandora of 8,000 monthly listeners, and 16 million cumulative streams. If you enjoy the artistry of guitarists such as Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges – virtuoso musicians whose music touches the soul – then you will love Michael Gulezian.

https://www.timbrelinemusic.com/