Gordon Grdina

Gordon Grdina is a JUNO Award-winning oud/guitarist whose career has spanned continents, decades and constant genre exploration throughout avant-garde jazz, free-form improvisation, contemporary indie rock and Arabic music. His singular approach to the instruments has earned him recognition from the highest ranks of the jazz/improv world. Grdina has performed and collaborated with a wide array of field-leading artists including Gary Peacock, Paul Motion, Marc Ribot, Mark Helias, Mats Gustafsson, Hank Roberts, Mark Feldman, Eyvind Kang, Colin Stetson, Mat Maneri, Christian Lilinger, Matt Mitchell, & Jim Black.

In 2019 he took two years out to develop his classical guitar technique before recording a series of classical guitar albums. The new direction allowed the dense harmonies and polytonal complexity to blend and soften creating a blending of sonorities unlike any of his previous work. For moments on Prior Street and Pendulum, the Oud takes on a new role experimenting in the same atonal world as the guitar before settling back down into the intricate world of Maqam.

In 2022 He started the exploration with a new instrument capable of live guitar with midi controlling simultaneously creating a vastly larger textural and aesthetic sonic space to be created. This was first used on Oddly Enough: The Music of Tim Berne, a COVID project that saw Gordon explore the beautifully complex world of Tim’s compositions for solo guitar. 

This instrument has since become standard use in the duo Grdina/Lillinger which explores a vast sonic and dynamic landscape within a duo setting.