Ken Murray

LUCKY STRIKE

Lucky Strike was named after a close shave with a bolt of lightning. The guitaristic opening motif came first and the rest of the piece grew from this material. 

RECIFE dos corais

Recife dos Corais refers to the coral reef that lies off the northeast coast of Brazil, a natural treasure much like the Great Barrier Reef off the northeast coast of Australia.

PINOTE

Pinote is a reference to a common scene in southern rural Brazil where rodeos take place, pinote being the horse's buck to dislodge its rider. Ken is playing here with Doug de Vries.

la petenera no ha muerto

A piece written by the Granadine flamenco guitarist and composer Angel Barrios (1882 - 1964), played by Ken Murray. Angel was a close friend to Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albeniz.

LAGARTIXA

"Lagartixa" is a moto perpetual choro taken from the suite 'Introduced Species' played and composed by Ken Murray. Tribute to the Brazilian guitar master Doug de Vries. Ken plays a cedar top Altamira N300 in this performance.

TREMOLO TECHNIQUE

Some great tips by Ken Murray on how to practice the tremolo technique on the guitar. Pdf available here: https://www.altamiraguitars.com.au/pdf

MORNING BELLS

Morning Bells. After years of  playing Regino Sainz de la Maza’s Campanas del Alba [Bells at Dawn] I wanted to write my own tremolo piece. To avoid the usual keys of A and E minor, I took some inspiration from a song by the English band Radiohead who wrote a song [Go to Sleep] based around a moveable G chord sonority. They also have a song titled Morning Bell, recorded first on the album Kid A (2000) and again in a different version on their next album Amnesiac (2001)

LANDSCAPES OF SANTO TIRSO

Landscapes of Santo Tirso was commissioned by Oscar Flecha and the Santo Tirso Guitar Festival in 2006 and inspired by the beautiful scenery and architecture of the Santo Tirso region. It is an area rich in history and home to a wonderful guitar festival that Oscar has directed every year since 1994. This piece is based on a Portuguese melody recorded by the Portuguese guitar virtuoso Carlos Paredes which appears at the end of the work.

Ken Murray is a leading ambassador for Altamira guitars and is a regular at Altamira's international guitar festivals and competitions.