8 New Records That Reimagine What a Guitar Can Do

A new generation of solo guitarists is offering fresh directions forward for the future of the instrument.
Graphic by Drew Litowitz

Just when you think all of the sonic possibilities have been wrung out of a guitar, someone comes along to expand expectations again. Instrumental solo guitar music in particular remains in constant motion, with artists continually moving beyond the influence of the late finger-picking pioneer John Fahey, who coined the term “American Primitive” to describe his wordless compositions, and experimenting with textures and melodies that recall New Age, drone, and pop more than anything resembling folk.

Dispensing with many of the formal associations of the instrument, this forward-thinking approach has informed much of the year’s best guitar music so far: When current go-to indie rock guitarist Meg Duffy announced their new collaborative project yes/and, they placed the word “guitar” in quotes—suggesting a distance mirrored by their abstract, imagistic treatment of the instrument. Urban Driftwood, the deeply melodic sophomore album from Yasmin Williams, meanwhile, approaches the instrument in more physical ways, as the 25-year-old musician lays the instrument across her lap, tapping on the body with her wrist for rhythmic effect. And last month, Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar issued Afrique Victime, a virtuosic statement that packs some of his most explosive solos alongside his most distinctive work as a bandleader. Below, find eight more recent releases that show the guitar’s boundless potential.


Rachika Nayar: Our Hands Against the Dusk

Inspired by the heart-tugging melodies of Midwestern emo and the boundary-pushing structures of jazz, Brooklyn’s Rachika Nayar uses her electric guitar to make quiet, visionary ambient music. The Indian-American, trans-feminine artist has described her mesmerizing debut, Our Hands Against the Dusk, as a deeply personal project. “It’s a feeling of something rising up inside of me,” she explained to The New York Times. “That’s a moment queer people can relate to, when you realize you don’t have to live a certain way.” You can hear her embracing this sense of freedom in the closing track “No Future,” which invites cellist Zeelie Brown into the fold: Their instruments quickly transform into something unrecognizable, dissolving into the mist, together.


Cameron Knowler & Eli Winter: Anticipation

Early this year, Houston guitarist Cameron Knowler released Guitars Have Feelings Too, an educational book that aims to restructure how guitar is taught, focusing on the history of bluegrass and folk music. Chicago guitarist Eli Winter is known for taking a similarly conceptual approach: The opening track of his most recent solo album was a politically charged, 22-minute meditation on poet Tory Dent’s commentary during the AIDS crisis. And yet the pair’s new collaborative album bears none of the weight of their more cerebral work. Anticipation is a centering collection of instrumental folk music, a conversation between friends just happy to catch up and pass the time.


Lisa Cameron & Sandy Ewen: See Creatures Too

If your understanding of solo guitar music involves intricacy and precision, please allow Sandy Ewen to shatter that vision with this video of her navigating the fretboard with a small rock. To summon this ominous, rattling mayhem—“I’d prefer things to be calmer but playing solo sets makes me anxious, and the music reflects that,” she explained in a 2018 interview—the New York-based artist has also been known to employ steel-wool pads and cat-grooming brushes. On her second collaborative album with percussionist Lisa Cameron, Ewen takes pleasure in exploding boundaries with a set of free improvisation that leaves you wondering what exactly you are hearing. (The liner notes are not particularly helpful: Ewen is credited with guitar and “devices,” while Cameron plays a self-invented instrument dubbed a “Berimbauophone.”) This is loud, confrontational music that makes the potential of any given sound feel limitless.


Ryan El-Solh: Music of the Years Gone By

Don’t let the title fool you: Music of the Years Gone By finds New York guitarist Ryan El-Solh, who also plays in the improv trio Scree, reimagining standards associated with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, but his debut solo album refuses to abide by tradition. Initially arranged for solo performance, the music expanded during the recording process in ways that sometimes recall MacArthur Fellow Mary Halvorson’s digitized approach to electric guitar, though El-Solh conjures an inviting atmosphere that’s all his own. Among the finest songs are two originals, “Rest” and “Bygones,” where El-Solh looks to the past only to find a way forward.


Ilyas Ahmed & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma: You Can See Your Own Way Out

The first collaborative release between Portland guitarist Ilyas Ahmed and ambient artist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma feels vast and lived-in: a slow, sprawling collection that finds the two musicians melding into a cohesive sound. When a single instrument does take the lead, like Ahmed’s acoustic guitar at the end of the title track, the effect is stirring—like turning your radio dial and landing on something beautiful and unexpected.


Rob Noyes: Arc Minutes

Rob Noyes, a 12-string guitarist based in Japan, takes full advantage of his instrument’s wide-open, reverberating qualities: His guitar can chime like a bell, drone like a foghorn, or dazzle with the interlocking melodies of a harp. His second solo album, Arc Minutes, arrived in February via Vin Du Select Qualitite, a guitar-centric label that has issued show-stopping releases for artists including Thurston Moore, Sarah Louise, and Bill Orcutt. Noyes’ latest keeps their hit rate high: His music enters the room like a strong gust of wind and resonates long after.


Tomáš Niesner: Aurora

Before he made gorgeous, melodic solo guitar music, Czech musician Tomáš Niesner played in the noise rock group Unna. Even without a band behind him, Niesner brings a deep intensity to his instrument: In a live video showcasing material from his all-acoustic new album Aurora, he bows his head as close to the fretboard as possible, letting the reverberation of his strings create a low drone against his picking. The result is hypnotic and, just like his heavier work, built for total immersion.


Chris Schlarb & Chad Taylor: Time No Changes

California artist Chris Schlarb has a penchant for high concepts. Last year he released Cosmic Pilgrimage: The Klyfta Tapes 1972 - 1975, a fictional anthology for Klyfta, which he describes as “the world’s most overlooked cosmic music ensemble” (possibly because they never existed). His other 2020 release, a double album under the name Psychic Temple, borrowed its title from one of the most-loved albums in classic rock history—Houses of the Holy—though nobody would mistake its homemade sprawl for anything by Led Zeppelin. This year’s Time No Changes pairs him with jazz drummer Chad Taylor, and they aim for simpler pleasures: droning 12-string ragas, gentle folk melodies, and quietly psychedelic mood pieces that transport listeners to a higher plane of thinking.