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Phil Schurger

The music Phil Schurger presents on “Echoes of the Ancestors” is the expression of a dynamic journey through ten years of meditative and musical process. He has honed his skills as a composer in order to effortlessly act as a conduit of force and form, oscillating sounds up from the Emptiness of mind. Through meditation, he awakens the sensitivity of intuition, and navigates the tides of consciousness, catching compositions as they arise in the currents of thought. It is a conscious-intuitive act of retrieving sounds and images of nature and culture, and uniquely sculpting them through an inner-alchemical process. Any object held in the mind can become a musical entity as Schurger becomes attuned with the sounds emanating from the stream of Mind, transfixed by the rising sounds.

Phil Schurger: The Waters Above

Read "The Waters Above" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
October 30, 2018

Guitarist/composer Phil Schurger is a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He leads his Chicago-based quartet--previously heard on Echoes of the Ancestors (ears&eyes, 2017)--through six expansive originals. The tracks run an average of ten minutes or more apiece, and they attain that length through compositional complexity rather than extended solos (although the band is blessed with very strong soloists). Not only that, but the entire set hangs together like a suite, with each tune leading naturally to the next.

"Phil Schurger's wide-ranging compositions and colorfully intense guitar playing are a rare treat: a cinematic meditation- blending both rock and jazz with a sense of both drama and the mystical." - Chicago Artist Revue