ANDERS NILSSON – Guitar
Photo: Peter Gannushkin downtownmusic.net
Electric & acoustic guitarist and composer Anders Nilsson lives in Brooklyn, NY. He leads his band Hesa Gun and plays in several NYC configurations, tours and records with artists such as singer/setar player Mohsen Namjoo & saxophonist Avram Fefer. He has worked with a wide array of composing and improvising visionaires across the genres and continents including guitarists Elliott Sharp and Raoul Björkenheim, violinist Jason Kao Hwang, vocalist Fay Victor, keyboardist Gordon Beeferman, Momenta Quartet, Under Satan’s Sun. He has performed throughout Europe, North America, Australia and appears on over 40 albums, many of which have received great critical and public acclaim. He has earned a reputation as a guitarist with a distinctive sound, style and insight into many traditions of music.
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Contact Anders: earraticart @ gmail.com
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Order your 180g vinyl copy of “Äventyr” – Anders’ New All Guitar Album on zOaR!
NEWS
2/17/26 Hesa Gun is the most current band playing my compositions. New music keeps getting added and the older pieces gain in maturity over time each time performed. Our next concert is organized by Jazz Shares at Holyoke Media, Holyoke MA Saturday April 11th!
HESA GUN is Anders Nilsson – guitar, Sam Kulik – trombone, David Ambrosio – bass, Vinnie Sperrazza – drums
12/5/25 The 49ers will strike again with a premier of my two electric guitar arrangement of Schönberg’s ”Drei Klavierstücke” op.11 (1909) from which the third piece in some circles is regarded THE OG of eXpReSsIoNiSm! @ Shapeshifter+ 839 Union Str. Friday 12/5 8pm as part of the Park Slope Food Coop program, $10 for 4 short sets: https://shapeshifterplus.org/event/psfcc-12/
11/21/25 The 49ers is Ty Citerman and myself playing Arnold Schönberg’s musically ground breaking piano music from over a century ago, plus originals, on two electric guitars! After 30 years of gut felt reactions, awe, inspiration, intrigue, getting scores out of libraries, wonder and gratitude to the fearlessness of Schönberg and his crew, it’s challenging and rewarding getting our hands dirty on a new level and bring ourselves into this music we feel such a kinship to.
LISTEN: 49ers arrangements of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke, Op. 19 (Six Little Piano Pieces)” (1913)
7/15/25 Anders appears on Jason Kao Hwang’s new release “Myths of Origin” on Flying Panda Music. Recorded live at Roulette at Vision Fest 2022. https://jasonkaohwang.bandcamp.com/album/jason-kao-hwang-myths-of-origin
Mohsen Namjoo & band @ Queen Elizabeth Theater in Toronto 1/11/25
Latest release “Äventyr” (zOaR)
QUOTES
“Anders Nilsson’s Äventyr, a recording of recently-composed guitar duets (in this case performed by two Anders), is a patiently unfolding wonderland of guitar possibilities. Utilizing mostly pristine guitar tones, this work often shimmers like crystal – delicate but not fragile – with the kind of “dissonance” I call “beauty”. Sonorities are masterfully combined, dynamics subtly shift as these rather episodic pieces patiently expand and explore. A kind of chamber work that manages to be both intimate and epic, revealing interior realms while still shredding just a bit… Irresistible.”
– Nels Cline
“In the pieces I’ve heard from Night Guitar, Anders Nilsson has managed to find something truly original left in the much pillaged vaults of country blues guitar- something of the ghosts that have haunted it since the beginning. Think Blind Willie Johnson meets Bernard Hermann. Excellent stuff.” – Marc Ribot
“Swedish-born and New York-based experimental guitarist Anders Nilsson produces music that is at once bracingly direct and utterly unclassifiable.” – Matt Miller, tuneOUToptIN
VIDEOS
See/hear more on “video” page & on the YouTube channel!