Electric and acoustic music with Spaghetti Eastern Music, the solo project of Saugerties guitarist/keyboardist Sal Cataldi. Cataldi’s debut album under the Spaghetti Eastern Music moniker, Sketches of Spam, is a 16-track, 69-minute, genre-surfing journey through contrasting moods, with instrumentals inspired by 70’s Miles, Krautrock, Ennio Morricone, Fripp & Eno and ECM’s icy guitar great Terje Rypdal giving way to bare-bones acoustic vocal tunes reflective of the influence of John Martyn and Nick Drake. In 2020, Cataldi followed this with a trio of critically-acclaimed atmospheric singles that have been heard around the globe, “Her Lemon Peel Raincoat – Because It’s Raining,” “Peace Within” and “And This is Their New Hoax,” a COVID-19 musical editorial featuring samples of President Trump’s most noted denials to Cataldi’s soundpainting guitars and synths. His February 2021 release, “Blues for A Lost Cosmonaut,” was a well-reviewed nine-minute plus maxi single again in the ambient mode while his November 2021, “Solo Guitar Score for 2x2x4” is a bold solo electric guitar score to a dance piece recorded live at the Avant-Garde Arama Festival in Woodstock, inspired by his work with the guitar orchestra of Rhys Chatham and his love of Fripp and “White Light, White Heat”-era Velvet Underground.

 

The New York Times says “Cataldi’s original instrumentals and acoustic vocal tunes have a beat unmistakably his own” while Time Out New York writes: “Cataldi’s largely instrumental, Eastern-influenced jams are infused with some delicate guitar work and hauntingly moody atmosphere.” Called “truly excellent” by The Village Voice, “a wild ride” by Radio Woodstock, “beautiful and unique” by WFUV’s Mixed Bag, “charmingly melodic and off-center” by WFMU and “a jazz virtuoso without the need to prove it” by Aquarian Weekly.

 

Almanac Weekly calls Cataldi “a unique voice who conjures a surprising blend of exploratory fusion, electronica and indie song craft, from the Ennio Morricone overtones anticipated by his handle to currents of Krautrock, techno, modal folk and various world music styles.” KMS Reviews call Spaghetti Eastern Music “pure harmonic bliss” while New York-based DooBeeDoo Reviews says it’s “as beautiful as a well-tended garden and as seductive as a courtesan in an opium den.” East Coast Rocker/Rolling Stone writer John Swenson, the man who penned the liner notes to Frank Zappa’s “Shut Up n Play Yer Guitar,” may have put it best: “He’s the hippie guitarist playing to another dimension” while Hudson Valley One calls it: “Part Sergio Leone fever dream, part Ravi Shankar raga, a whirling dervish of musical creation.”