Tripliciti – Tripliciti: Album Review

By John Barlass on 10th April 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Virtuosity doesn’t always equate to melodicism, but it certainly does on the stunning debut album from fingerstyle guitar supergroup, Tripliciti.

Release Date: 4^th April 2024

Label: Self Release

Formats: CD / Vinyl / Digital

Back in January – it seems like such a long ago – we were enthralled by a single, In Lak Ech, from fingerstyle guitar supergroup, Tripliciti. We described the tune as “Dazzling and thoroughly engaging,” and we set our clocks to alert us when the tune’s parent album began its emergence over the horizon. Well – the album’s here at last, and it’s every bit as marvelous as we’d allowed ourselves to expect. Tripliciti is a must-hear album for anyone with any aspiration to pick up a guitar; it’s a showpiece of guitar virtuosity and, although virtuosity doesn’t always equate to melodicism, there’s no doubt that, in the case of Tripliciti, those two qualities are tightly entwined.

Let’s refresh our minds. Tripliciti – the band – is a collaboration planned and assembled by world-renowned guitar master, Andy McKee, along with rising superstars Calum Graham and Trevor Gordon Hall. Andy first appeared on the radar when his composition, Drifting, became one of the first YouTube videos to go viral – to date, it’s had around 60 million views – and his reputation has been consolidated by the six albums he’s released since his 2001 debut, Nocturne, and a string of EPs, most recently his 2021 offering, Symbol, on which he interpreted tunes by artists as diverse as Prince, Preston Reed, Billy McLaughlin and Michael Hedges.

Award-winning Canadian guitarist, Calum Graham is known for his sense of melody that has been described as “unmistakable and immediately recognizable.” In 2010, he became the only teenager ever to win the International Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar competition and he was invited to perform at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games and at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He has nine solo albums to his name, most recently, his 2023 10^th Anniversary revisit of his 2013 debut, Phoenix Rising.

Philadelphian Trevor Gordon Hall started to attract attention during the early 2000s. He’s performed in 17 countries so far and his growing discography continues to amass views and listens on Spotify and YouTube. His signature fingerpicking guitar style has drawn praise from the likes of Steve Miller, Graham Nash and Steve Hackett; he’s the proud inventor of the kalimbatar, a guitar that includes a kalimba – an African finger piano – and it’s an instrument that he puts to good use throughout this album.

Together, Andy, Calum and Trevor produce a sound that is utterly unique, a glorious blend of Americana, jazz, flamenco, folk and rock – all tinged with classical references – in which steel strung guitars, electric guitars, high-strung guitars, low-pitched baritone guitars and kalimbatar are blended, enmeshed and in perfect harmony. Each player is a master, a virtuoso, but Tripliciti isn’t about virtuosity for its own sake; the tunes here are, in-turn, melodic, contemplative, dreamlike, invigorating and, always, enjoyable.

Tripliciti (l-r) Calum Graham; Andy McKee; Trevor Gordon Hall [pic: Pat Johnson]

The power of the trio’s combined virtuosity and musicianship is evident right from the outset, on the album’s breathless opening track, Never Grow Old. Sure, the virtuosity is on show, but it’s all in a good cause in a delightful tune that is as light and bright as a fast-flowing mountain stream. Lighting-paced fingerpicking is supported by a few well-placed strums as the three guitarists merge into a single, inseparable body.

The variety of Tripliciti is demonstrated the slow, contemplative, The Blue Hour – a tune to drift and dream to – before things take a steamy romantic turn for Journey Of Love, one of the album’s genuine highlights. As sweet and intimate as its title suggests, this is a tune with a comfortable, historic feel to it, evocative of a well laid-out garden on a sunny afternoon. Once again, the three guitars integrate beautifully, each player’s notes seeming to wrap themselves around those of their colleagues. And, as the drama of the piece builds, a burst of flamenco breaks out.

The enticing tones of Trevor’s kalimbatar on the dreamy, jazzy, percussive, Blue Liquid are carried forward into the bluesy that Old Familiar Pain, a tune with a delicious, relaxed mellowness, and Andy delivers a blistering electric guitar solo that reminded me of some of Zappa’s more elegiac tunes – Watermelon In Easter Hay, for example.

The fingerwork on the folky, danceable Tabula Rasa is utterly breathtaking – the ultimate reminder, if we needed one, of just what these three guys are capable of, before they blend their instruments in an altogether different – but equally effective – way for the gentle, peaceful, Memento Vivere, the album’s only entirely new composition. Andy McKee recalls how the tune came about: “Trevor brought it in for us to work on and I loved it right away. It has a way of enchanting you, it’s almost more like a spell than a piece of music.” Trevor goes on to explain: “I composed this piece on high-strung guitar, envisioning how Andy and Calum would complement and expand upon it. They absolutely nailed it!”

In Lak Ech is, of course, the tune that first aroused this writer’s admiration of Tripliciti. I loved the tune’s pastoral richness when I first encountered the piece and those qualities are undiminished. Each player takes a turn in the spotlight – Trevor chipping in with some magical slide guitar and glittering kalimbatar, Calum with choppy acoustic guitar and Andy with another of his amazing electric guitar solos – it’s a wonderful tune. And, by the way, the title is a Mayan greeting that means, literally, “You are my other me.” It’s a statement of unity.

Originally a solo piece that featured on Andy’s 2005 album, Art of Motion, For My Father is revisited here by the trio. The tune is very special to Andy, as he explains: “My dad gave me my first guitar when I was 13 years old. He passed away in 2005 from cancer but I was able to perform this piece for him before he died. The version on this album with Calum and Trevor really, really makes me emotional every time we play it.” And I have no doubt that Mr McKee (senior) will have melted with admiration and pride when his son played the tune for him; this is fingerstyle guitar like you’ll have never heard before

Evocative and atmospheric, the percussive Hunter’s Moon rocks gently and is peppered with tasty lead lines, and we stay up there in the heavens for Ursa Major, the album’s closing track. It’s another tune with a well-chosen title, as Trevor’s kalimbatar makes a final appearance to provide the pin-pricks of starlight, whilst Andy and Calum fill the spaces between the stars with their slow, thoughtful guitar passages.

Tripliciti is a supergroup that thoroughly deserves its classification as such, and this debut album features guitar music – the like of which you’re unlikely to have ever heard before. Simply stunning.

Watch Tripliciti perform For My Father – Andy McKee’s heartfelt tribute to his late father – here: