Metzger uses a modified banjo, strummed, picked with a plectrum or fingers, and bowed(!), to produce improvisational, trance-like, altered ragas. Tension and release are deployed via dynamics, rhythmic excitement, cleverly developed repetition, and subtle fills. He is a masterful musician who absorbs the listener through his own absorption in the music, and control of musical narrative. I recommend his album Deliverance, which can be sampled at Amazon UK. It is improvised and thus rough-edged as one might expect, but the lengthy tracks demonstrate the communication of musical ecstasy of which Metzger is capable.
I had the slightly surreal experience during the post-concert taxi ride home of hearing Madonna on the radio. It was as if the curtain had been replaced, obscuring a world of wonder and leaving me stranded in a blandly humdrum, colourless world. Viva Paul Metzger and those few like him, who can draw back that curtain for us, for a fleeting moment.
