Guitar virtuoso Felix Martin has graced us again with another sonic and rhythmic experience with his upcoming effort “The Gathering”. It’s scheduled to release March 1st and am completely honored a modern legend let me check out his pending release. His tapping style, rhythm and focus on composition drew me in many years ago. Your average instrumentalist focuses on guitar solos, some cool riffs and whatever else. Martin has clearly put in a lot of effort into his songs and “The Gathering” is another celebration of that. It isn’t a trio of musicians showing off and lulls the listener to sleep. In fact, there’s a lot of rhythm changes and beautiful phrasing. His rhythm section is incredible and has further enhanced his musical talents and sounds.

Felix is such a a thoughtful musician with cool sections, utilizing the acoustic guitar in some of the songs on “The Gathering”. During those passages, you can hear the bass shine like a bright star. The drums are equally phenomenal playing some great patterns on the mellowest sections; and then keeping up with some technical work on the faster parts. It’s an otherworldly experience you don’t get from many artists these days. Martin may not bring the heavy riffs of a peer like Tosin Abasi but clearly has the chops to keep up with a modern legend. He is a highly underrated player and this record proves that yet again.

“For this album, I wanted to write strong and well defined melodies (mostly using my chord soloing technique) while keeping my sound as unique as possible using my tapping techniques. FM Guitars, my guitar brand, has significantly enhanced  my capabilities, enabling me to play instruments like the 16-string and 12-string  guitars with single coils, as well as 10-string basses. This gives me a huge palette  of sounds and possibilities.” says Felix.

“Felix crafted a unique sonic experience with this album that will certainly appeal  to a broad audience,” added bassist Joan Torres. “The music transports you to  various scenes and landscapes reminiscent of video games, anime, or even period  pieces. Moreover, the record showcases engaging musicianship and songwriting,  making it enjoyable for guitarists, bassists, and drummers alike to dissect and  study.”  

For the first time, Felix blends an FM Guitar (mostly 12 and 16 string guitars) with an FM 10 string Bass, which makes for a truly unique blend. Great examples of this  are on the tracks “Moonhike”, “Rootcraft”, and “Fatechanger” where both  instruments play the same lines in a way that would only be possible on the FM  Guitar style instruments. “I wrote about 40% of this album using an FM 10-string  bass. It was a massive inspiration machine and a different feel to my technique.  Songs like “Moonhike” and “Fatechanger” were almost entirely written on the  bass first. This type of bass was just released in 2022 by myself, so I was, in a way,  developing techniques to play a newly invented instrument,” says Martin. 

Every one of the ten tracks on “The Gathering” has custom artwork for it. There’s a different anime character for each song and follows a specific theme & style for each one. The artwork is a manifestation of Felix’s passion for anime, with elements being  inspired by individual songs he created. As a self-proclaimed enthusiast of anime  and manga, Felix conceived the idea to design an anime character for each song  during the album’s creation process. Each character not only represents a song  but is also inspired by it. Throughout the year, these characters will be showcased  in music videos and across Felix’s social media platforms. 

It’s such a progressive and forward thinking album it stands out in the instrumental community. As a fellow guitarist I greatly appreciate the talents. I can’t fathom playing two necks, let alone just focusing on one. Now, reversing that to my weak side and NOT USE A PICK? This stuff is bonkers to me and is amazing how clean this trio plays. “The Gathering” is a gathering of a wealth of talent by these 3 human beings. Check out these 3 performances of the singles released ahead of time. If you want something new and fresh outside of your normal listening habits, Martin has you covered. This behemoth releases March 1st don’t let it escape your radar!

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