Erik Mongrain is a self-taught French-Canadian guitar player that absolutely shreds. On his recently released debut full-length Fates Mongrain demonstrates the percussive two-handed tapping technique he calls “air-tap” that makes an acoustic guitar emit tones I never thought it could. Its like Van Halen meets James Taylor; furious but soothing. Fates is an album brimming with virtuosic performances, but for all the technical wizardry demonstrated by Mongrain, he also knows when to slow down and let his music and the melodies breathe. I could get lost in it and (IMHO) that’s the most impressive part.
Check out this You Tube clip below of him playing in his signature air-tap style. As a guitar player myself, I think it is pretty amazing. Fates is due out June 27th on Propahse Music/ MVD and is something you need to check out.
MP3 | Erik Mongrain – PercusienFa Fates
MP3 | Erik Mongrain – Air Tap! Fates
There are many practitioners of this style these days; if I’m correct, it all started with Michael Hedges, so you might like to give some of his work a listen. But Kaki King is another one of the current luminaries of this style. This guy’s quite excellent, though.