Experience the "guitartistry" of Toulouse Engelhardt, one of the world's finest finger-style guitarists! "Perpendicular Worlds," his signature collection of spellbinding guitar solos, has arrived!

Lost Grove Arts, is proud to announce the long anticipated release of "PERPINDICULAR WORLDS" (LG-1006), a new series of solo guitar masterworks by legendary guitar virtuoso Toulouse Engelhardt. This album is the apogee of 45 years of mastering the acoustic guitar. It is "Chewing pine at its very best!” Perpendicular Worlds begins where the guitar phenom’s first album -- the 5-star, critically acclaimed "Toullusions," released on John Fahey's Takoma Records and re-released by Hollywood/Polygram Records left off! This new album is a tableau of spellbinding string visions, a "tableux virants" showcasing Toulouse Engelhardt’s musical evolution as one of the world’s finest 12 string guitar masters! There is nothing like "Perpendicular Worlds" in the entire genera of contemporary solo fingerstyle guitar music!

"Toulouse Engelhardt’s Perpendicular Worlds album is on target and perfecto! It raises the bar for instrumental solo acoustic guitar music to a new level. I see how the guitarist had the unshakeable faith and inspiration to make music his own way. He grew up immersed in the Southern California beach culture; at the legendary Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, he met Wes Montgomery, who willingly gave pointers to this eager student of guitar. Engelhardt went on to record for Takoma Records, with label-mates Leo Kottke and John Fahey, but that is where the similarities end. Other than the fact that they all play solo acoustic guitar instrumentals with poly-melodic themes and traveling “Merle Travis” bass-lines, they have little in common. There is something else brewing here that sonically differentiates Toulouse from his old label-mates of the “Takoma Daze” and beyond.

It's like with reggae or the blues, when people say, “These tunes all sound the same.” That's the enemy for most guitarists, but not in this case! Engelhardt’s new tableau of bronze strings and heavy-gauge National Steel fingerpicks defies categorization His “guitartistry” is wisely crafted and an undisputed symbol of quality, even for those guitar folks who are reluctant to really stop and think about what quality is.

Engelhardt sets the stage for this unalloyed sound by taking an image, a verse from a distinguished predecessor, and crafting something original from it. He uses traditional roots as a launching pad, but quickly takes off his “travelin’ shoes,” climbing into his own customized Enterprise, taking over the controls and sending you into the ionosphere and beyond, in a “Toulouse Groove.”

Toulouse Engelhardt is a master tinker of his craft. His inventions are as timeless, kaleidoscopic and spatial as Oceania and Interstellar Space. He knows how to create visual imagery through the idiom of music. His music sounds, or maybe I should say looks, like constant Northern Lights, as the listener descends through stained glass, falling from the sky through a prism. One moment you are on a fast-moving, runaway train with his driving twelve-string guitar delivering a pulsating inertia, expressed in amazing time changes, only to be suddenly immersed in the tranquility of Inner Space, with a subtle, ebbing and flowing liquid naturalism. I see dolphins playing in the Pacific Ocean, having fun, in time to his music.

Though I was never directly involved in his career development as a producer or as a personal manager, I have always known he was the next “gunslinger” on the horizon to hit the O..K.. Corral. For thirty years I have watched him evolve from the folding chairs of coffee houses into a world class acoustic guitarist with few peers.

To paraphrase author Tom Wolfe, “Toulouse Engelhardt has The Right Stuff!”

--Denny Bruce, former producer and manager of John Fahey and Leo Kottke, and co-owner of Takoma Records, May 15, 2009.

“Perpendicular Worlds" could end up to be one the most important acoustic solo guitar album in more than two decades. It is a tour de force of 12 string guitar...Light years beyond his contemporaries. John Fahey had “Blind Joe Death”, Leo Kottke had “Armadillo”, Michael Hedges had “Imaginary Roads” and now Toulouse Engelhardt has “Perpendicular Worlds”…... Looks like all you fingerstyle guitar fans have a new hero to worship!”

Steve Beat…Radio X. Malibu, CA 10/09’

"Acoustic guitar genius Toulouse Engelhardt is on the loose again!"...www.latimes.com

"Toulouse Engelhardt is a World class acoustic guitarist with few in any peers!"....Denny Bruce; former manager and producer of Leo Kottke and John Fahey 5/15/09'

"In 2009, Toulouse Engelhardt is going into sonic places with his fingers on the fretboard where few in the Universe visit."

....Harvey Kubernik; Legendary L.A. Music Journalist & Author