Since appearing with the Celtic-influenced new age act, Orison, on the
band's 1990 Celtic & Contem, guitarist William Coulter has gone to develop
his own unique style of new age music based upon many varied forms of
traditional music. So varied are the musical styles called on by Coulter, in
fact, that many of his creations have proven impossible to categorize. Since
going it alone in the early 1990s, Coulter's music has been dubbed
everything from simply "new age" to the more sublime "new acoustic" and more
recently "Celtic fusion."
Whatever critics and fans alike choose to dub the guitarists' music, there
can be no denying the originality of many of his projects - the most unique
of which have been his three albums of re-workings of music originally
penned by the Shakers, a Christian religious sect founded in Scotland in the
late 1700s.
It was while working on the Shaker projects that Coulter first teamed-up
with Barry (cello, mandolins, harpsichord) and Shelley Phillips (harp,
recorders, oboe, English horn and whistle), with whom he is presently
touring Asia with under the guise of the Coulter-Phillips Ensemble.
Although Coulter has recently been reported to be collaborating with sitar
guru Ravi Shanker for the trios?Taiwan appearances the "new acoustic/Celtic
fusion" group will be performing a smorgasbord of Celtic and
Shaker-influenced material.
The Coulter-Phillips Ensemble will be bringing its Celtic fusion to the
Taoyuan County Cultural Center (桃園縣文化中心) at 7:30pm tonight and then
moving on to Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Chiayi, Hsinchu and Taichung.
Tickets cost from NT$300 to NT$1,200. For the tour schedule go to
http://www.ticket.com.tw.
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