Stephan Thelen "Worlds In Collision"

Country: Switzerland
Genre(s): Instrumental Progressive Rock
Label: MoonJune Records
Format: CD, digital
Release date: May 1, 2026
Tracklist

1. In Search of the Miraculous

2. Fractal Guitar Goes to Africa

3. Haumea

4. Crossroads (for Bill Laswell)

5. Creatures of the Night

6. Eclipse, Phase 1 (Into the Darkness)

7. Eclipse, Phase 2 (Into the Light) 

8. In Search of the Miraculous (Coda)

Credits

Stephan Thelen: guitars, keyboards, percussion, electronics, programming

   With

Eivind Aarset: guitars

Markus Reuter: U8 touch guitar (1)

Jon Durant: guitars 

Stefan Huth: AU8 touch guitar (bass) (1,6,7)

Yogev Gabay: drums, percussion

Giri Subramaniam: tabla (4)

Andi Pupato: framedrum, hihat, azzam bells, percussion (5)

Fabio Anile: Fender Rhodes (6,7)

Description/Reviews:

FRACTAL GUITAR 4 is many things: instrumental music that fearlessly and uncomprimisingly explores the sonic and expressive potential of the modern electric guitar combined with digital effects, music that - thanks to drummer Yogev Gabay - is a masterclass in polyrhythmic drumming, music that is as precise as a Swiss watch, but that can also be free, wild and expressive. But, ultimately, it captures a passionate and urgent ‚Search for the Miraculous,‘ a search for timeless music that reflects the tragic contradictions of the human condition in its general and current state, where there is light as well as darkness, hope as well as despair, truth as well as illusion. 

Media/Samples
Bandcamp

Links:
Web page
Facebook
Progarchives
Proggnosis

Stephan Thelen "Fractal Guitar 2"

Country: Switzerland
Genre(s): Instrumental Progressive Rock, Space Rock
Label: Moonjune Records
Format: CD, digital
Release date: March 9, 2021
Tracklist

1. Cosmic Krautrock (14:08) 

2. Fractal Guitar 2 (7:58) 

3. Mercury Transit (12:03) 

4. Ladder To The Stars (14:54) 

5. Celestial Navigation (12:29) 

6. Point Of Inflection (12:12) 

Total Time 73:44

Line-up

Stephan Thelen (Sonar): electric guitar, choppy organ (1), granular synth (1, 6), programming (1, 3, 5), fractal guitar (2), formant swell (2), e-bow (3, 5), particles (3, 5), keyboards (3-5)

   With

Markus Reuter (Centrozoon, Stick Men): U8 touch guitar (1, 2, 4, 5, 6), soundscapes 

Jon Durant (Burnt Belief): electric guitar (1, 3), fretless guitar (2, 5, 6), VCS3 guitar (3), filtered and sliced cloud guitar (4), cloud guitar (6)

Andi Pupato (Andreas Vollenweider): percussion

Stefan Huth: touch guitar AU8 (bass) (1-3, 5, 6)

David Torn: electric guitar (1, 6), live looping (1, 6)

Bill Walker: electric guitar (1, 5), live looping (1), feedback (1), lap steel (2, 5)

Andy Brugger: drums (1, 3, 6)

Barry Cleveland: 6 & 12-string guitar (2, 6), filtered guitar (2), bowed guitar (3, 6), revox loops (3), chopped guitar (6), fuzz orchestration (6)

Manuel Pasquinelli (Sonar): drums (2, 4, 5)

Fabio Anile: keyboards (3), electric piano (4)

Henry Kaiser: electric guitar (4)

Chris Muir: electric guitar, live looping (4)

Andy West: bass guitar (4)

Media/Samples
Bandcamp

Links:
Web page
Facebook
Progarchives
Proggnosis

Sonar with David Torn "Tranceportation (Volume 1)"

Country: Switzerland
Genre(s): Instrumental Progressive Rock, Math Rock
Label: RareNoise Records
Format: CD, digital, vinyl
Release date: November 29, 2019
Tracklist: 
1. Labyrinth (14:26)
2. Partitions (5:37)
3. Red Sky (11:14)
4. Tunnel Drive (7:42)

Line-up: 
David Torn - electric guitar, live looping
Stephan Thelen - tritone guitar
Bernhard Wagner - tritone guitar
Christian Kuntner - tritone bass
Manuel Pasquinelli - drums, percuss

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

Links:
Web page
Facebook
Progarchives
Proggnosis

Stephan Thelen "Fractal Guitar"

Country: Switzerland
Genre(s): Instrumental Progressive Rock, Ambient
Label: Moonjune Records - MJR096 
Format: CD, digital
Release date: January 18, 2019
Tracklist: 
1. Briefing For A Descent Into Hell (18:35)
2. Road Movie (13:23)
3. Fractal Guitar (9:20)
4. Radiant Day (8:42)
5. Urban Nightscape (17:34)

Total Time 67:34

Line-up: 
Stephan Thelen (Sonar): fractal, tritone, blue sky guitar, granular loops, organ, samples
   With
Markus Reuter (Centrozoon, Stick Men): U8 touch guitar, soundscapes
Matt Tate: U8 touch guitar (bass)
Manuel Pasquinelli (Sonar): drums (1, 2, 4)
David Torn: electric guitar & live looping (1, 5)
Jon Durant (Burnt Belief): cloud guitar (1)
Bill Walker: electric guitar & live looping (2)
Henry Kaiser: electric guitar (2)
Barry Cleveland: guitar atmospheres (3, 4), bowhammer (4)
Andi Pupato (Andreas Vollenweider): percussion  (3)
Benno Kaiser: drums  (3, 5)

Description/Reviews: 

Fractal Guitar features the atmospherically dense, polyrhythmic tapestry for which is Sonar is well known, but focuses much more on the sonic and ambient possibilities of the electric guitar. In the liner notes, Stephan Thelen writes : “After a few years of playing without effects apart from reverb in Sonar, I felt the urge to compose and record some pieces in which effects were an integral part of the music. I especially wanted to use an effect I worked with before Sonar, which I call “Fractal Guitar” — a rhythmic delay with a very high feedback level that creates cascading delay patterns in odd time signatures such as 3/8, 5/8 or 7/8. The other desire I had was to work with and to have some serious fun with a few of the many great guitarists I've met over the years to create an album that features some of the more forward-looking possibilities of the most mysterious, compelling and eclectic of all instruments, the electric guitar. ” 

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

Links:
Web page
Facebook

Sonar with David Torn "Vortex"

Country: Switzerland
Genre(s): Instrumental Progressive Rock, Math Rock
Label: RareNoise Records (RNR087)
Format: CD, digital, vinyl
Release date: March 30, 2018
Tracklist: 
1. Part 44 (9:56)
2. Red Shift - (10:31)
3. Waves And Particles (7:49)
4. Monolith - (10:47)
5. Vortex (9:37)
6. Lookface! (7:13)

Total Time 55:53

Bonus Vinyl Live Tracks:
7. Monolith
8. Part 44

Line-up: 
Stephan Thelen: tritone guitar
Bernhard Wagner: tritone guitar
Christian Kuntner: electric bass
Manuel Pasquinelli: drums
   With
David Torn: electric guitar, live-looping & manipulation

Media/Samples 
Teaser
Waves and Particles

Links:
Web page
Facebook
Progarchives
Proggnosis

Sonar with David Torn "Vortex"

Country: Switzerland
Genre(s): Instrumental Progressive Rock, Math Rock
Label: RareNoise Records (RNR087)
Format: CD, digital, vinyl
Release date: March 30, 2018
Tracklist: 
1. Part 44 (9:56)
2. Red Shift - (10:31)
3. Waves And Particles (7:49)
4. Monolith - (10:47)
5. Vortex (9:37)
6. Lookface! (7:13)

Total Time 55:53

Bonus Vinyl Live Tracks:
7. Monolith
8. Part 44

Line-up: 
Stephan Thelen: tritone guitar
Bernhard Wagner: tritone guitar
Christian Kuntner: electric bass
Manuel Pasquinelli: drums
   With
David Torn: electric guitar, live-looping & manipulation

Media/Samples 
Teaser
Waves and Particles

Links:
Web page
Facebook
Progarchives
Proggnosis

Markus Reuter "Falling For Ascension"

Country: Germany
Genre(s): Experimental Instrumental Progressive Rock
Label: 7d Media (USA/Canada), Ronin Rhythm Records (Europe)
Format: CD, digital
Release date: April 21, 2017
Tracklist: 

1. Condition I    
2. Condition II    
3. Condition III   
4. Condition IV    
5. Condition V   
6. Condition VI   
7. Unconditional

Line-up: 
Markus Reuter (Stick Men, Crimson ProjeKct, Tuner): touch guitars® U8, soundscapes
   With
Stephan Thelen (Sonar): guitar
Bernhard Wagner (Sonar): guitar
Christian Kuntner (Sonar): bass guitar
Manuel Pasquinelli (Sonar): drums
Tobias Reber: live electronics

Description/Reviews: 

Perhaps sharing similar strands of the kind of polymetrical DNA that informed the interweaving knot-work of King Crimson’s Discipline, the pointillist components with Reuter’s pieces, interacting across the group, resembles a series of interlocking constellations whose orbits and traversals connect to create new variations and associations. Hypnotic and beguiling, the music comes with a guttural punch that’s felt as much as heard.
The music offers deep explorations between tension and release, between the gravitational pull of grooves and floating freefall in space. There’s contrast between stillness and grace next to the ever-changing motion.

Across the 70-minute album these pieces possesses the same metronomic intensity of groups such as Can in full-flight, in which intense, pulsating grooves are strafed by Reuter’s smouldering solos or wreathed in luminous clouds of soundscapes. Without recourse to showy grandstanding, his playing possesses a remarkable, unerring accuracy when it comes to finding the emotional heart of this music. Much like the sparse acuity of a haiku poem, when he plays Reuter understands that less is so often very much more.
The hypnotic quality dominating many of the pieces opens the possibility of trance states, of surrender, of losing yourself in the maze of interconnecting corridors and spaces.

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

Links:
Web page
Facebook
Proggnosis

Sonar "Black Light"

Country: Switzerland
Genre(s): Instrumental Avant Prog, Math Rock
Label: Cuneiform
Format: CD, digital, vinyl
Release date: October 16, 2015
Tracklist: 
1. Enneagram.
2. Black Light.
3. Orbit 5.7.
4. Angular Momentum.
5. String Geometry.
6. Critical Mass.
7. Twofold Covering [Bonus Live Track].
8. Tromsö [Bonus Live Track]

Line-up: 
Stephan Thelen: guitar
Bernhard Wagner: guitar
Christian Kuntner: bass guitar
Manuel Pasquinelli: drums

Media/Samples 
Black Light

Links:
Web page
Facebook
Progarchives

Sonar "Static Motion"

Country: Switzerland
Sub Genre: Avant Prog, Math Rock
Label: Cuneiform
Release date: January 21, 2014
Tracklist: 

1. Static Motion
2. Twofold Covering
3. Landslide
4. Shadow Play
5. Triptych
6. Continuum
7. Tranceportation
8. Zero Tolerance
9. Vertical Time

Line-up: 
Stephan Thelen: guitar
Bernhard Wagner: guitar
Christian Kuntner: bass guitar
Manuel Pasquinelli: drums

Description/Reviews: 

... underscoring the Swiss based ensemble’s unique style based on self-imposed limitations, restrictions and intentful pursuit of minimalism. First and foremost are the tritones that both guitarists and bass have tuned their strings to: only C or F# are allowed within Sonar’s world. Second, this is not really rock, not jazz either; in reality it’s deft ensemble work based on crafty instrumental interplay, with little room for any flashy soloing.

Read the full review by Peter Thelen at expose.org

Media/Samples 
Static Motion

Links:
Web page
Facebook
Progarchives