Max Goldston at Imaginary Road Studios April 2008
With a career that followed being born in the Mediterranean island of Ibiza and then starting one of the first critically acclaimed rock bands in Ibiza in the ‘80s, guitarist Max Goldston returned to the U.S. and has since lead an intriguing musical career as an acoustic guitar instrumentalist. Following a collection of guitar instrumentals recorded between 1996 and 2005 entitled WESTERN AGE and a 2006 collaboration with Barcelona-based producer ANTONI COLOMAR, Goldston began working in the Vermont studio of WINDHAM HILL Records founder WILL ACKERMAN. The results can be heard on EMANCIPATION, GOLDSTON’S 2009 CD RELEASE. For anyone who doesn’t know or remember, Will Ackerman’s tenure as the head of Windham Hill yielded some of the most meditative and atmospheric instrumental music of the mid ‘80s and early ‘90s and he’s also the man who helped craft the term New Age. Recording up at Ackerman’s Imaginary Road studios, Goldston makes the most of the studio’s high tech sound and comes out a winner with Emancipation. Few guitarists today are as adept and proficient as Goldston when it comes to capturing the Windham Hill guitar sound that Ackerman helped introduce with his signings back then, including the late great Michael Hedges, Alex DeGrassi and Ackerman himself. An essential spin for fans of the acoustic guitar, Emancipation is a breezy acoustic guitar masterpiece and will appeal to fans of the Windham Hill sound and beyond. Further assisted by top sound engineer CORIN NELSEN, Goldston makes his Martin guitar ring out loud and clear on a solid CD that simultaneously traces the legacy of the acoustic instrumental guitar sound while bringing it forward into the future. One other point to mention is the eye-catching artwork adorning the CD cover of of Emancipation, to which Goldston comments, ‘The cover design is a painting called “La Chica con Guitarra”. The painter is TOM PROVO, an artist I met over in Ibiza years ago. He now resides in Blacksburg Virginia and his many paintings are in some of the top art galleries of the country. The design for the CD was done by graphic art designer ANGELES DIAZ in Barcelona and the CD was manufactured by DISCMAKERS.’
ROBERT SILVERSTEIN www.mwe3.com
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When I was 5 I started playing the pots and pans in Vermont. My parents hence bought me my first drumkit with a Dave Clark 5 logo on it – I started learning classical guitar, blues, and rock when I was 11. Throughout my younger years I was involved in jam sessions with adult players. In 1976 we moved to upstate New York. At college I formed a duo with an old friend from Ibiza. We were called Tim and Max and we had a great following. We played original acoustic folk. After a few years I moved back to Ibiza and fell in love. In 1987 I formed an all original, Spanish American Pop Rock band called Limites.In 1989 we entered the VII Pop-Rock contest the most important contest in Spain. We moved through the semi-finals to the Finals and ended up 5th out of 65 bands. As a result we were invited to record our best song “Dejame Estar” on an LP at Joan Bibiloni’s Swing Studios in Mallorca. In the Summer of 1989 we were curtain callers for the number one band in Spain “Los Ronaldos” at the annual Estiu Jove Concert. Limites is a legendary name in Ibiza-well remembered by all it’s diehard fans and musicians of the islands. Not only were we the first band from Ibiza to get national recognition for original rock, we set the path for the rest of the struggling and younger musicians in Ibiza to play original music and not give in to covers and hotels. In 1991 I moved back to the States; Atlanta. In 1993 I hooked up with my old partner from college and formed a more mature and serious version of our duo with management. In less than two months Bellows and Stone were playing concerts at all of the most important venues of Atlanta including Eddies attic, Dark horse tavern, neighbor’s Pub…In ‘94 we recorded a demo in Dede Vogt’s Sound and Fury studios. We started traveling regularly to Asheville where we filled coffee houses, played at the famous “Be Here Now” several times opening up for Acoustic Alchemy and Aztec 2step. We also had an interview on NPR radio. We were gigging regularly all over Atlanta, Asheville and Athens and our venue list was growing to include NYC,ChapelHill-Durham, Athens, and more. To check out Bellows and Stone opening for Acoustic Alchemy go to http://cdbaby.com/cd/bellowsstone In 1996 I started writing and recording on my own. The CD Western Age is a homemade collection of instrumentals written from 1996 to the present.Acoustic western fingerstyle rock with a western/new age feel.Hence the label Western Age. It is a blend of my own original feel and reflections of my main influences— JJ Cale and Micheal Hedges- My 2nd CD is a collaboration with Barcelona based musician/engineer/producer Antoni Colomar. This collaboration called Aurum started during the Fall of 2006. Our CD “Island Lost” is a collection of Max Goldston’s acoustic guitar instrumental compositions with production and arrangements by Toni Colomar. Very unique acoustic guitar driven instrumentals. Acoustic guitar ambient music. www.maxgoldston.com