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On his second Ears and Eyes release, “the Waters Above”, guitarist and composer Phil Schurger continues down the path of monumental storytelling through symbols referencing the cosmos, and a curiosity for world cultures.  As with with his first release, “Echoes of the Ancestors”, each  composition is multi-dimensional and episodic.  The opening melodic statement sets the scene, which is followed by solo sections and interludes, crafted to continue the development of the ebbs and flows of the broader story.  The band is dynamic in its ability to sculpt the music, whether propelled by Greg Ward and Phil Schurger as the soloists, or Clif Wallace and Jeff Greene’s dynamic rhythm section playing.  
On his second Ears and Eyes release, “the Waters Above”, guitarist and composer Phil Schurger continues down the path of monumental storytelling through symbols referencing the cosmos, and a curiosity for world cultures.  As with with his first release, “Echoes of the Ancestors”, each  composition is multi-dimensional and episodic.  The opening melodic statement sets the scene, which is followed by solo sections and interludes, crafted to continue the development of the ebbs and flows of the broader story.  The band is dynamic in its ability to sculpt the music, whether propelled by Greg Ward and Phil Schurger as the soloists, or Clif Wallace and Jeff Greene’s dynamic rhythm section playing.  
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The music Phil Schurger presents on “Echoes of the Ancestors” is the expression of a dynamic journey through ten years of meditative and musical process.  He has honed his skills as a composer in order to effortlessly act as a conduit of force and form, oscillating sounds up from the Emptiness of mind.  Through meditation, he awakens the sensitivity of intuition, and navigates the tides of consciousness, catching compositions as they arise in the currents of thought.  It is a conscious-intuitive act of retrieving sounds and images of nature and culture, and uniquely sculpting them through an inner-alchemical process.   Any object held in the mind can become a musical entity as Schurger becomes attuned with the sounds emanating from the stream of Mind, transfixed by the rising sounds.
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“Phil Schurger’s wide-ranging compositions and colorfully intense guitar playing are a rare treat:  a cinematic meditation – blending rock and jazz with a sense of both drama and the mystical.” - Chicago Artists Resource
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"Echoes of the Ancestors" stretches out with epic compositions that move between different states. Deep grooves and luminescent melodies emerge in compositions that seem to stand still in the eye of a storm. In other words, they are both dynamic and reflective."  -Jakob Baekgaard, All About Jazz
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"A listener needn’t be a mystic to appreciate his music, which  possesses a Coltrane-like expansiveness.  Fluctuating tempos and spiraling improvisations lend Schurger’s music a mysterious quality, and even the composed passages are chromatic.  The playing throughout is accomplished, especially the interaction between Schurger and Ward"  -Ed Kopp, Jazziz (Winter print edition)
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phil schurger