Today, Erototox Decodings is releasing a collaboration between Rhys Chatham and Nico Guerrero entitled “Athanor”.
It features Rhys and Nico’s guitar talents as well as other instrumentation and processing.
Lawrence English (Room40) brought his magic touch by performing the mastering at Negative Space Studio.
Side 1 of the Anathor recording features Rhys on alto and C flutes. Nico is playing electric guitar with low pitch tuning and dissonant chords.
On Side 2, Rhys switches to electric guitar tuned in just intonation, and Nico’s playing becomes more melodic with waves of resonances reminiscent of a sitar’s overtones.
Rhys Chatham is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Manhattan, currently living in Paris, who fused avant-garde minimalism with the electric crunch of punk rock. Chatham’s instrumentation ranges from the seminal composition composed in 1977 entitled Guitar Trio for 3 electric guitars, electric bass and drums, to the epoch evening-length work for 100 electric guitars, An Angel Moves Too Fast to See, and A Crimson Grail. Chatham is currently touring as a solo & duo performer, playing versions of his recently released LPs with David Fenech (Klang), Nico Guerrero (Erototox), Ghédalia Tazartès (Sub Rosa), and Z’ev (Entrefer).
Nico Guerrero is a French composer-guitarist living between Paris and Reykjavik. In the early 90′, his dark shoegaze project Vortex already laid the foundations for the cosmic and noisy universe he would explore later. His guitar processing through numerous electronic filters creates a very dense space, rich in overtones, becoming a wall of echoing organ clusters, sometimes cold and incantatory, sometimes more epic and shaping dreamscapes, or darker and threatening.
For all this and more, visit…
ATHANOR / Rhys Chatham & Nico Guerrero
Released December 19, 2025 / Format 12″ vinyl LP + Digital album
- Primary Motion of the Sun (20:00)
- Circumambulation through the Bounds (18:28)
Composed and Produced by Rhys Chatham & Nico Guerrero
Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space
Rhys Chatham: alto & bass flute in C, electric guitar in Pythagorean tuning
Nico Guerrero: electric guitar, electronic filters
Recorded & Mixed at Studio Myrha, Paris, September 2024
Artwork: Nico Guerrero, Eternal Energy, 2022
Back cover drawing: Thomas Wright, An Original Theory of The Universe, 1750
Inner Sleeve illustration: attributed to the Persian Zoroaster, Clavis Artis, 1737
Label Illustration: Johannes Conradi Barchusen, Elementa Chemiae, 1718
Thanks to Chandra Shukla for his unwavering faith and devotion to the Muses
© 2025 RC & NG
℗ 2025 Post Minimalist (BMI)
© 2025 EROTOTOX DECODINGS. All rights reserved
