The Squid's Ear Magazine


Sharp, Elliott: Mandorle (zOaR Records)

The companion album to Sharp's Mandocello, a tour-de-force exposition of the mandocello, acoustic and electronic, an instrument evolving out of the 18th century mandalone into a louder instrument intended to take the bass role in mandolin ensembles, here with tributes to Srinivas, Yank Rachell, Alvin Lucier, Frank Wakefeld, Tiny Moore, Ira Louvin, and Benoit Mandelbrot.
 

Price: $13.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units

Sample The Album:





Product Information:

Personnel:



Elliott Sharp-mandolin, electric mandolin

Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.



UPC: 755491323953

Label: zOaR Records
Catalog ID: ZCD 172
Squidco Product Code: 35482

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded, at Studio zOaR, in NYC, in July, 2024.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Elliott Sharp is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer.

A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City for over 30 years, Elliott Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from orchestral music to blues, jazz, noise, no wave rock, and techno music. He leads the projects Carbon and Orchestra Carbon, Tectonics, and Terraplane and has pioneered ways of applying fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetic metaphors to musical composition and interaction.

His collaborators have included Radio-Sinfonie Frankfurt; pop singer Debbie Harry; Ensemble Modern; Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; Kronos String Quartet; Ensemble Resonanz; cello innovator Frances Marie Uitti; blues legends Hubert Sumlin and Pops Staples; pipa virtuoso Min-Xiao Feng; jazz greats Jack deJohnette, Oliver Lake, and Sonny Sharrock; multimedia artists Christian Marclay and Pierre Huyghe; and Bachir Attar, leader of the Master Musicians Of Jajouka.

Sharp is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, and a 2014 Fellow at Parson's Center for Transformative Media. He received the 2015 Berlin Prize in Musical Composition from the American Academy in Berlin. He has composed scores for feature films and documentaries; created sound-design for interstitials on The Sundance Channel, MTV and Bravo networks; and has presented numerous sound installations in art galleries and museums. He is the subject of a new documentary "Doing The Don't" by filmmaker Bert Shapiro."-Elliott Sharp

-Elliott Sharp website (http://www.elliottsharp.com/bio.html)
12/9/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:


Compositional Forms
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Guitarists, &c.
Solo Artist Recordings
New in Compositional Music
Recent Releases and Best Sellers

Search for other titles on the label:
zOaR Records.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Cline, Nels / Elliott Sharp
Open The Door
(Public Eyesore)
Recorded across two sessions eight years apart, Nels Cline and Elliott Sharp forge a vivid acoustic-guitar dialogue that blends crisp articulation, percussive attack, spectral overtones, and patient, boundary-pushing interplay, creating a set of inventive, empathetic improvisations that expand the guitar-duo tradition with wit, texture, and fearless curiosity.
Sharp, Elliott
Mare Crisium
(zOaR Records)
Elliott Sharp unites six electric guitarists in a powerful, overtone-rich work built from droning harmonies, graphic scores, shifting rhythms, and open improvisation, transforming his long-running compositional ideas into a vibrant, resonant soundscape that channels the tension of our present moment into bold, electrifying musical energy.
Armaroli / Piccolo / Sharp
Imaginary Songbook [2 CDs]
(Dodicilune)
Through 64 succinct works, the trio of Sergio Armaroli (vibraphone), Steve Piccolo (electric bass, voices, electronics), and Elliott Sharp (guitars, soprano saxophone) unravels and reimagines the jazz tradition in fascinating fragments where familiar melodies, riffs, and harmonic cues flicker through an inventive, experimental interplay that blurs memory, abstraction, and improvisational wit.
Kanda, Ayako / Elliott Sharp
Hi-Gengo
(Erototox Decodings)
Exploring a vivid spectrum of sound, the duo of Ayako Kanda (voice) and Elliott Sharp (baritone guitar, electronics) pairs Kanda's kaleidoscopic shifts between linguistic and nonverbal expression with Sharp's baritone guitar textures and electronic detail in an improvisational dialogue that moves fluidly between abstraction, color, and visceral intensity.
Armaroli, Sergio Quintet (Sharp / Piccolo / Edwards / Sanders)
Introducing A Very Heavy Person, First Visit To The Audio Equivalent Of A Graphic Novel.
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Blurring the boundaries between composition, improvisation, and spoken word, percussionist Sergio Armaroli leads a quintet of Elliott Sharp, Steve Piccolo, John Edwards, and Mark Sanders in an evocative, time-bending sonic narrative, drawing inspiration from John Cage, Kenneth Patchen, and free jazz traditions in a phantasmagorical soundscape and an immersive auditory experience.
Sharp, Elliott (w / Sally Gates / Toshi Dorji)
Ere Guitar
(Intakt)
Following his 2017 trio album with guitarists Marc Ribot and Mary Halvorson, New York guitarist Elliott Sharp returns to his Manhattan studio with two different guitarists--Bhutan guitarist Tashi Dorji living in Asheville, and New Zealand guitarist living in New York Sally Gates--for ten far-ranging improvisations of inspired technique and creative intent.
Void Patrol (Sharp / Stetson / Martin / MacDonald)
Live @ Victo
(Les Disques Victo)
A wild and adventurous concert and one of the highlights of the 39th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville from the electric improvising quartet of Elliott Sharp on electric guitar & electronics, Colin Stetson on bass, alto & tenor saxophones, Billy Martin on drums & percussion and Payton Macdonald on marimba, vibraphone & African xylophone.
Bootstrappers (Elliott Sharp / Melvin Gibbs / Don McKenzie)
Xenolith
(Klanggalerie)
The first new Bootstrappers album since 1992, joining band leader Elliott Sharp for this 3rd album are longtime collaborators Melvin Gibbs on electric bass and Don McKenzie on drums, for seven assertive rock-based improvisations fueled by electronics, free jazz, no wave and electroacoustic sound, manifesting a hardboiled NY ethic of focused grooves and free playing.
Armaroli, Sergio / Steve Piccolo / Elliott Sharp
What Went Wrong
(Leo Records)
The fifth album on Leo Records for vibraphonist Sergio Armaroli, and his second with NY guitarist, saxophonist & electronic artist Elliott Sharp and bassist Steve Piccolo, using lyrical interpretations of jazz standards as a jumping off point for experimental and unusual approaches to improvisation, a unique balancing point in a fascinating collection.
Semantics (Elliott Sharp / Ned Rothenberg / Samm Bennett)
Bone Of Contention
(Klanggalerie)
Including three previously unreleased live tracks, one of Downtown NY's supergroups of drummer Samm Bennett, reed & wind player Ned Rothenberg and guitar & bass player Elliott Sharp's 2nd album is reissued, bringing this collection of seemingly endless possibility in improvisation back to the foreground, sounding as modern today as it did in the percolating creativity of 1987.
Armaroli, Sergio / Steve Piccolo / Elliott Sharp
Blue In Mind
(Leo Records)
An unusual blend of jazz tradition, spoken word and soundscape, presenting mostly as a jazz album with spoken narration from Steve Piccolo (Lounge Lizards) guiding the album with abstract comments that interject with Sergio Armaroli's virtuoso vibe playing, Elliot Sharp adding both acoustic sax elements and inventive sonic environments underpinning many moments; conceptually fascinating.
Noyes, Charles K. / Elliott Sharp
Besotted
(zOaR Records)
A series of collaborative electracoustic improvisations recorded remotely during the pandemic by long-time associates, electric guitarist Charles K. Noyes and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp, here performing on arches h line (a 9-string double neck instrument), violinoid, triple course bass pantar, analog synthesizers, sax & bass clarinet.
Sharp, Elliot: Tectonics
Field & Stream
(Knitting Factory)
Elliott Sharp's 1998 Knitting Factory album finds the saxophonist, guitarist & electronic artist in a solo setting of rhythmic works using MAX/MSP and DSP applications to create rhythmic and sonic environments over which he improvises, with assistanceĘon one track each from Zeena Parkin on "little green drone guitar" and Frank Rothkamm providing drums sequences.
Sharp, Elliot
Binibon
(Henceforth)
A modern spoken opera by NY composer Elliott Sharp and librettist/narrator Jack Womack (Terraplane) with several narrators, reflecting the events surrounding a 1981 killing in New York's East Village, set in a darkly instrumental soundtrack developed by Sharp using guitars, saxophones, clarinets, synthesizers, bass, percussion, drums programming and samples.
Sharp, Elliott
IrRational Music [BOOK]
(TerraNova Press)
An insightful look at the history of New York composer, saxophonist and guitarist Elliott Sharp, "Sixteen Pieces in the Shape of a Memoir" as Sharp looks back at his musical influences and approach to playing and composing, with observations on music, art, politics and technology, a fascinating set of essays from a vanguard artist's point of view.
Chansons du Crepuscule (Helene Breschand / Elliott Sharp)
Aube
(zOaR Records)
A collection of original songs and interpretations inspired by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, from vocalist Hélène Breschand, also performing on harp, electronics & field recordings, in a duo with Elliott Sharp, who creates grooves and instrumental environments on guitar, synth, bass, drum programming & electronics, each song beautifully fractured and rich in detail.
Synkretika (Carl Stone / Elliott Sharp)
Live in Tokyo
(zOaR Records)
One of the pioneers of live computer music, Carl Stone and guitarist, multi-reedist and electronic artist Elliott Sharp have had a long association sharing concert stages together, heard here in 2019 at Bar Ishee in Tokyo for a unique concert of syncretic improvisation, merging instrumental music with unusual concrete and acousmatic sonic manifestations.
McKenzie II, Donald Sturge Anthony (feat. Elliott Sharp, Bill Laswell and Vernon Reid)
Silenced II - Views from the Auction Block
(577 Records)
Drummer Donald Sturge Anthony McKenzie II trades off duos with a set of masterful musicians in the second volume of his "Silenced" project, here with guitarist Elliott Sharp for a complex and inspired dialog; with bassist Bill Laswell for a rich and moody soundscape; and with guitarist Vernon Reid in a piece for McKenzie's daughter; plus one solo drum piece.
Various Artists (curated by Nick Vander)
Walk My Way, Volume One
(Orbit577)
The first of a five-volume compilation series curated by Nick Vander, a testament to the incredible musical range of the guitar and the imaginative possibility of guitarists around the world, with tracks from L. Hein, Davaajargal Tsaschikher, Alan Courtis, Marco Cappelli, Elliott Sharp, Hery Ujjaya, Killick Hinds, Gilbert Isbin, and Nick Vander.
Semantics (Elliott Sharp / Ned Rothenberg / Samm Bennett)
Semantics
(Klanggalerie)
An excellent example of the 80s Downtown NY approach to improvisation from the trio of wind player Ned Rothenberg on alto & tenor saxophones, bass clarinet & flute, Elliott Sharp on guitar, bass & violin, and Samm Bennett on drums, percussion & electronic drums, all in the height and excitement of the new music being developed and performed in NYC in the 1980s; awe-inspiring!
Sharp, Elliott / Sergio Sorrentino
Spilla'
(ANTS Records)
'Spilla' means 'to play' in the language of Neapolitan musicians, and playing here are NY guitarist and composer Elliott Sharp and Italian guitarist Sergio Sorrentino, presenting world premier recordings of 4 works recorded live in Vercelli, Italy: two improvisations and two graphic scores performed on electric guitar with incredible technique and passion.
McKenzie II, Donald Sturge Anthony (feat. Elliot Sharp, Bill Laswell, Vernon Reid)
Silenced II - Views from the Auction Block [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(577 Records)
Drummer Donald Sturge Anthony McKenzie II trades off duos with a set of masterful musicians in the second volume of his "Silenced" project, here with guitarist Elliott Sharp for a complex and inspired dialog; with bassist Bill Laswell for a rich and moody soundscape; and with guitarist Vernon Reid in a piece for McKenzie's daughter; plus one solo drum piece.
Kimura, Mari / Roberto Morales Manzanares
Leyendas
(Les Disques Victo)
Recorded live in Mexico in 1999, violinist Mari Kimura and multi-instrumentalist Roberto Morales Manzanares create a poetic and emotionally charged set of concise improvisations, shifting between violin, flute, piano, harp and electronics as they blend lyrical expressiveness with bold, exploratory interaction.
Berthiaume, Antoine / Elliott Sharp
BASE
(Ambiances Magnetiques)
Two guitarists from New York's Downtown and Montreal's Actuelle scenes in 11 guitar improvisations, experimental sounds constructed and deconstructed.
Fujii / Tamura / Sharp / Kato
In the Tank
(Libra)
Sharp, Elliott
Sharp? Monk? Elliott Sharp Plays the Music of Thelonious Monk
(Clean Feed)




The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC