Michael Gulezian

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Michael Gulezian is an American composer and fingerstyle guitarist known for dramatic, meter-shifting pieces, open tunings, and a free two-handed playing approach. He often uses a bottleneck slide on 12-string guitar and reverse analog reverbs to create a dreamlike sound.

Born in 1957 in Newark, New Jersey, Gulezian began playing guitar at six. He taught himself, drawing on Armenian folk songs from his mother and his father, H. Aram Gulezyan, a Middle Eastern oud virtuoso and ethnomusicologist. His influences range from Armenian, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Chinese music to Gregorian chant, rock, jazz, and folk.

In 1965 his family moved to Tucson, Arizona. As a young guitarist he was inspired by Mississippi Delta players and Blind Blake, Reverend Gary Davis, and later John Fahey and Leo Kottke. He also explored artists like Keith Jarrett, John McLaughlin, Ravi Shankar, and Sun Ra. At Holy Cross Abbey in Colorado, he studied Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and James Joyce, which shaped his sense of language, time, and spirituality.

While still in high school, Gulezian was introduced to John Fahey through Robbie Basho. After issuing his own Snow, he signed with Takoma Records. Snow was re-released in 1980 as Unspoken Intentions and earned international acclaim, influencing artists such as Henry Kaiser and Michael Hedges.

Takoma eventually became bankrupt. Gulezian earned degrees in entrepreneurship and marketing from the University of Arizona and started the Timbreline Music label. He released Distant Memories & Dreams in 1992, followed by The Dare of an Angel in 1994. He moved to Nashville in 1997. In 2002 Unspoken Intentions was reissued by Fantasy Records. His subsequent albums include Language of the Flame (2003) and Concert at St. Olaf College (2005).

Today Gulezian continues to perform hundreds of concerts, teach guitar workshops and master classes across the United States, and his work remains a feature on NPR and other broadcasts.