My Foolish Heart

Personnel: Ralph Towner (12-string guitar, classical guitar).Liner Note Author: Ralph Towner.Recording information: Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano (02/2016).Having focused on small groups in the 2010s and even collaborated with Argentine ensemble Aires Tango for 2016's Duende, Ralph Towner returns to a solo guitar format on his 2017 ECM effort, the warmly ruminative My Foolish Heart. Entirely consisting of Towner's classically inflected original pieces save for a gorgeously measured rendition of the Victor Young/Ned Washington title track composition, My Foolish Heart is a virtuoso session, intimately delivered. On past solo albums, like 1973's Diary and 1982's evocative Blue Sun, Towner deftly exploited the use of overdubbing various instruments to achieve his atmospheric layers of harmony. Here, with producer Manfred Eicher at the helm, he favors the minimalism of simply playing his woody, acoustic classical and 12-string guitars into a microphone. Even so, there are moments here,