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Michael Gulezian: American composer, musician, and guitarist. In stark contrast to other solo acoustic guitar instrumentalists, Gulezian is noted for his chaotic and unconventional technical approach, his use and command of feedback, throwing mic stands and piano benches as high as two hundred feet into the air, jumping into the crowd, smashing his equipment, and flailing his guitar wildly onstage, all while simultaneously performing atmospheric 12-string bottleneck slide compositions in odd time signatures and extreme open tunings.
While a student at Holy Cross Abbey, Michael was the principle songwriter and lead singer for the ill-fated chillhop shoegaze gregorian chant emo-punk band “Intubator,” which was forced into early retirement when bass player Zbigniew Kcrzyzjrzywczski tragically threw himself into the path of an oncoming train near Cotopaxi, Colorado. Traumatized, Gulezian took up the ocarina, the svelt harmonium, the glass skiponga, the pump theremin, the turnbuckle dholok, the otamatone deluxe, the goatskin tombak, the anhydrous hydraulophone, the bloviating trumpette, the boa-skin erhu, the hornucopian dronepipe, and the pyrophone organ, but finally settled on the acoustic steel string guitar. He underwent a period of self-imposed exile in a cylindrical mesh yurt near Minden, Nebraska. During this period he was influenced by the wind, flooding rivers, the singing of insects, by thunderstorms, and also by Deputy Sheriff Jimbo “Plumb Bob” Pusser, who introduced Michael to classical Middle Eastern music, non-Western Classical Indian and Chinese music, improvisational rāgas, northern hemispheric musical idioms such as Tuvan Throat Singing, Acid Jazz, and Chaos Theory, as well as highly ambient inaudible pan-chromatic domains of non-human physical vibration and causality.
In 2024, Gulezian made music headlines after an incident on the streets of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, where he allegedly stared “disrespectfully” at a statue of late country guitarist Chet Atkins. Gulezian took one step toward the statue, but was quickly seized by plainclothes security guards and wrestled forcefully to the ground. The incident resulted in Gulezian receiving numerous death threats from outraged Tennesseeans.
“Michael Gulezian ... might be the most accomplished pure guitarist on the planet. compositional genius. ... a magisterial ode to a quiet, breathing awe ... a religious experience ... the sense of a person playing a guitar disappears into the music ... transcends music and reaches into the ethereal world. ... astounding ... cosmic.”
Fred Kraus - Minor 7th .com
“… ingenuity and mastership. Michael Gulezian uses his guitar as a medium to pour out his soul. Every note that comes from Gulezian transgresses our indoctrinated notions of what music is and what music does … name the un-nameable and communicate the unknowable.”
Edward Zaspel, Staff Writer - The Manitou Messenger, ST. OLAF COLLEGE
“… guitar monster … Gulezian rips … but for all his virtuosic ferocity, Michael never loses sight of the melody, or the drama of his compositions.”
John Diliberto, Host / Producer - Acoustic Guitar Magazine; Echoes (Public Radio International)
“… exquisite … amazing …”
Bob Boilen, Director - Tiny Desk / All Songs Considered / National Public Radio
“I wish there was a video component to what we do because Michael positively dances with the guitar, if one can do that sitting down. … incredible spiritual relationship with his instrument. A great discovery.”
David Dye, Host / Producer - World Cafe / National Public Radio
“. . . one of the most amazing acoustic guitarists on earth. Michael Gulezian puts his entire heart and soul, his entire being, into every song he does live. … incredible passion, and unbelievable technical skill … that rare breed of artist who combines astounding virtuosity with emotional intensity. Michael Hedges Goes to Heaven is the most stunning guitar tribute I have ever heard.”
Dore Stein, Producer/Host - Tangents Music Radio
“Michael Gulezian carries the legacy of pioneering guitarists John Fahey and Leo Kottke into the 21st century. … extraordinary talent. … sublime control and deep absorption of disparate styles, from the brawny soulfulness of the Delta masters, to the ethereal arabesques of Persian court music, to the playful syncopations of American jazz.”
Doug DeLoach - Creative Loafing
“… one of the most respected jazz-folk instrumentalists in the country.”
Noel Murray - Nashville Scene
“… a formidable player …”
Tom Surowicz - Minnesota Star Tribune
“Michael Gulezian makes my top five concerts, ever: Bob Marley, Prince, the Allman Brothers, Segovia – how Gulezian gets included, in a small room with eighty people, is because of the unique journey he took us on. His tunings are strange, his fingers too fast, so there was no need to watch. He has an artist’s soul, an innocence and purity that clearly emerges in sound. There was no way to filter, categorize or interpret what he was creating. All one could do was listen and experience. You couldn’t really even identify it as guitar. So there was no guitar, no form, and somewhere in that night’s journey, no me really, just a perfect melding of vibrations and moment. He ferried us across some threshold and the rest of the evening flowed like that, just relentlessly evocative music.”
Logan Hebner, Executive Director - Zion Canyon Mesa
