Guitarist Pierre Bensusan Releases New Album ENCORE

After 40 years of live performances and recordings, Pierre Bensusan, world renowned as the "Mozart of Guitar," is enjoying his latest round of exciting accolades for Encore, an ambitious and expansive retrospective collection celebrating his 40 years as a globetrotting concert performer.

In Acoustic Guitar magazine's (www.acousticguitar.com) recent feature article on Bensusan and his 3-CD, 35-track collection of career spanning live performances, Doug Young writes: "Bensusan has become known as one of the world's premier fingerstyle guitarists, combining dazzling technique with complex and adventurous compositions that incorporate elements of jazz, folk and Celtic music as well as more exotic elements from his French-Algerian heritage...His eclectic, distinctive style has greatly influenced several generations of fingerstyle guitarists, but at the same time, his tone, phrasing and melodic approach remain unmistakably unique."

In Premier Guitar Magazine (www.premierguitar.com), Teja Gerken called Encore a "stunning overview of Bensusan's career...an amazing 40 year retrospective that sounds great (thanks to Grammy-winning engineer Rich Breen) and serves as an excellent introduction to Bensusan's work."

Music Morsels Reviews (musicmorsels.wordpress.com) wrote: "One of the most highly respected acoustic guitarists around, Pierre Bunsusan rooted through his collection of live recordings over a span of several years to come up with this thirty five song career introspective that will no doubt be highly coveted by loyal fans as well as a great entry level collection for those who are curious. This is Pierre at his simple best, picking and plucking his classics in brilliant fashion...For those who don't know him but are fans of instrumental acoustic guitar music, dive right in. If this does not make you an instant fan, nothing will."

Bensusan has an upcoming feature in Vintage Guitar Magazine's February 2014 issue.
The guitarist's highly anticipated upcoming 40th Anniversary Tour of Europe and North America will also be a celebration of a dynamic 35-year association with his longtime guitar maker Lowden Guitars (www.georgelowden.com).

The contemporary world music and master fingerstyle guitarist (www.pierrebensusan.com) and the Ireland-based manufacturer have announced that Lowden Guitars will be sponsoring the tour, which begins with 22 dates Bensusan's home country of France from January to March 2013 (starting with 6 shows in Paris, Jan 30 to Feb. 8) and includes about 40 dates in the U.S. and Canada (beginning March 15, 2013 in Santa Monica, Calif.), stops in Montreal (April 25) and wraps with Northern Calif. (May 10) and then play about 25 shows in Germany, Austria, France, U.K. & Ireland.

A promotional video about how Encore came about is now available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El0gS6dXr1k&feature=youtu.be.