acoustic solo oud

After many years away from this style, Mustafa Stefan Dill is offering acoustic solo performances in 2020, marking a return to the form that began his career. While Dill has released solo acoustic material on video in recent years (with some of that repertoire licensed for film), solo acoustic concerts have not been offered in over 15 years.

A new acoustic oud has inspired a fresh take and new repertoire.

Performances will focus on the oud, but guitar can be offered if requested.

“Your music is amazing…stunning. Thank you for your beautiful songs!” Alexia Prichard, filmmaker and executive producer “Facing History and Ourselves”, on licensing MSD solo oud music, November 2018.

” The work of guitarist Stefan Dill is as daring as it is ambitious and satisfying. …These are tensions which propel the music – beyond hearing , which is what it ultimately aspires to- is all to do with the delivering of not just sound, but of a pure experience”. Loretta Summers, World Beat (England), no 6 (April/May 1998)

“Eine mitreißende Tour durch eine andere Welt von Klängen und Inspirationen. Flamenco? Ja – aber einmal ganz anders!” Peter Maier, Gitarre Aktuell, I/98 (No. 60)

“The completeness and extreme originality of guitarist Stefan Dill’s art is more than impressive….He has drawn from all manner of sources: the percussive power of flamenco has a role to play, balancing the expressivity of free jazz and the structural concerns of post – Schoenberg straight music….Crucially, his music is no potpourri: his tastes may be eclectic but he has his own, very distinctive, voice.” Steve Lake, ECM producer, for the FMP Total Music Meeting 1994 programme notes

“…haunting music in a language that floats on the threshold of the unconscious, congratulations!” Roberto Limon, Director, Centro Hispanoamericano de Guitarra, August 1996

availability: current

Love unfold the sun

with Dave Wayne, drums; Dan Pearlman, cornet; Ross Hamlin, bass

Atmospheric, searing and hypnotic, the Middle Eastern-tinged free-jazz/funk quartet Love Unfold The Sun reunited in 2018, reconvening a well known area lineup from the early 2000s. They released “Live At Duel” in 2019, a live album full of sparkling interplay and hypnotic grooves and are impressing audiences in the desert southwest and are seeking to expand their reach.

The interplay, energy, range and the much freer take on the usual world/jazz mashup genre make this an interesting offering.

“The open improvisations reveal an acute sensitivity ,…, ushering the quartet into one bracing and surprising exploration after another.” Mel Minter, Musically Speaking, April 2019

“… combine nicely the kind of post-Milesian electricity of the Davis ’70s bands with a Mid-Eastern sensibility and plenty of freedom. Dill has his own way around the guitar and it has been influenced quite naturally by his own oud work. Everybody gets with it here. It is a good go of things, I would say!” Grego Applegate Edwards, https://gapplegateguitar.blogspot.com, May 2019

availability: current

MSD Taos trio/quartet

Now a resident of Taos, New Mexico, MSD is tapping area musicians Ben Wright (upright bass) and Chipper Thompson (hand percussion) to form the core of a new project.

Simultaneously more muscular and more intimate than LUTS, this project can extend to include an electronica/DJ remixer and/or a drummer for dance/rave/club engagements as well.

The group will offer two formations: a dynamic acoustic first set and an intense electric second set.

 

Availability: early Spring 2020
collaborations/in development

Dill is available for collaborations, guest artist appearances, side and session work and other special projects. If you have a project that may seem a good fit, reach out through the contact button below.

Two additional projects are also in development:

  • an erotica -themed multimedia presentation with live improvised music, spoken word and film;
  • a death metal guitar/oud/electronica trio collaboration.

Details on both projects will be announced in the coming months.

 

licensing

Dill ‘s music is also available for film, television and theater use, and custom soundtrack work is also possible.

Dill scored the soundtrack for the independent Bengali film Birth Of A Pillow as part of Sama’ Duo in 2006. More recently, he licensed solo oud tracks for the documentary “Facing History and Ourselves” and in 2019 composed and recorded the score for the Santa Fe Playhouse production of “The Happiest Song Plays Last.”

For details, rates etc,  please inquire via the inquiries/booking form, below right.