Seattle Guitar Circle, an eight-piece acoustic guitar orchestra, performs collaborative repertoire for layered guitars and voices including structured improvisation that sounds composed and composed collaboration that sounds improvised. This 2023 ‘Simple Songs’ performance brings to life new arrangements of pieces by Charles Ives, Chick Corea, Erik Satie, Hanai Rani, John Coltrane, Jon Brion, Jonny Greenwood, Leo Brouwer, Meredith Monk, Robert Fripp, Ryuichi Sakamoto – as well as new work from composers within the core SGC team.
Seattle Guitar Circle was founded in 1993 by Steve Ball, Bill Rieflin and Bill Van Buren. For 30 years, they have been playing eclectic, polyrhythmic prog chamber music arranged for large acoustic guitar ensemble all over the Seattle area. Seattle Guitar Circle has many related sub-groups such as Tuning the Air (seven years of weekly shows at Freemont Abbey), Tiny Orchestral Moments (seven-plus years of workshops and live shows) and Argentina’s Electric Gauchos, recording and performing in Seattle since 1997. This international community was initially born via Robert Fripp’s Guitar Craft workshops that began in 1985. Each SGC performance is a combination of tightly-arranged chaos, layered guitars “circulations” – where each guitarist plays one note at a time in evolving melodies.