13. John FaheyRequia
John Fahey was an artist and guitar virtuoso. I like Requia because you can feel the visual element to it. It’s an audio collage. His paintings were also really frantic and very intense but at the same time beautiful and carefully composed. You understand the dedication and concentration he has.
He also has modesty towards sound and his music and how much it meant to him, but it could also be so destructive. I like that quality. Being destructive with something you love so much also means you don’t simply want to hold onto it and keep it tight, because that could kill it much more than if you chop it up and smash it into pieces. You’re able to revive it, or revitalise it. You know where it’s from. It’s not the actual guitar pick, it’s what the guitar pick makes with you and what you say with it. Even Fahey’s guitar would be more than a guitar. It was like a voice, a pen and a typewriter. He even transcended that and he’s definitely a 20th-century superhero. I hardly heard anything by him I didn’t like.
