The September 2017 digital anniversary compilation release Sten Hostfalt / Microtonal Guitar Works Vol.1 celebrates and sums up 15 years of microtonal guitar work featuring his original work Cuatros Primeras Piezas Para Microtonal Guitar composed for a 2014 premiere solo concert performance the XXXV Encontre de Compositors at Pilar i Joan Miro' Mallorca Spain, as well as music composed for the 2010 solo concerts at New York's Symphony Space and his 2014 microtonal ensemble work Dimensional States for 13 musicians and 2 dancers at ShapeShifter Lab NYC, and academic microtonal lectures at New World School for the Arts, Miami FL, Berklee College of Music and The Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Following the path set by the '02 solo concert recording 29 Pieces for The Microtonal Guitar Live at Knitting Factory New York, critically regarded a seminal work for microtonal music on the standard 6-string / 12-fret guitar.

Este virtuoso guitarrista y aclamado compositor neoyorkino se inicio' en la escena internacional del jazz a mediados de los años noventa y desde entonces ha recogido numerosos premios por sus originales proyectos y grabaciones. Y es que, Sten Hostfalt es un músico innovadorque ha ideado ténicas para el seis cuerdas estandár y más allá del sistema temperadode doce notas. En el XXXV Encontre Internacional de Compositors presenta en solitario su proyecto Microtonal guitar¨ - ARTS MALLORCA.com ( Spain ) 2014

Intrduced on the international jazz scene through 90's performances, recordings and collaborations with mentors, icons of American music Jimmy Giuffre and Paul Bley, masters of jazz Gary Burton, Peter Erskine, Clare Fischer and Rob McConnell and via apprenticeship in jazz orchestras led by Herb Pomeroy, Phil Wilson and George Russell. As a guitarist in the first edition of Guillermo Klein's semi-legendary ensemble he appeared alongside new jazz generation luminaries Mark Turner, Chris Cheek, Seamus Blake, Melvin Butler, Aaron Goldberg and Jeff Ballard weekly during the inception of NYC jazz club Smalls.

Sten Hostfalt is a leading innovative guitarist and composer working on the New York music scene of today. He performs with some of the most original and unique voices in modern music and has been called 'highly exceptional' by legendary American music icon Jimmy Giuffre and 'virtuosic' by musical innovator Joe Maneri writes master educator and Berklee College of Music Professor Jon Damian-one of the world's foremost thinkers about guitar, theory and pedagogy, in his book publication ' FRESH MUSIC : Explorations with The Creative Workshop Ensemble For Musicians, Artists and Teachers' a document of forty years with Mr. Damian's creative workshop at Berklee where his students have included Bill Frisell, Jeff Parker, Mark Whitfield, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Leni Stern, Wayne Krantz and Lionel Loueke.

Sten Hostfalt has developed his own repertoire incorporating microtones - a genuinely innovative approach, 29 Pieces for The Microtonal Guitar may be considered groundbreaking in the future JAZZ REVIEW

The total immersion of a miniverse of finely etched detail taken to glorious extremes, 29 Pieces for The Microtonal Guitar is among the most riveting explorations of the microtonal world ever recorded. It's fine focus and beauty of detail puts the cycle in a class with John Cage's exquisite 'Sonatas and Preludes for Prepared Piano' - Larry Cosentino, SIGNAL TO NOISE

Active as a performer, composer and bandleader since the late 70's, Sten Hostfalt's international recognition as a singularly unique and original guitarist, composer and solo performer came with his second album, '29 Pieces For The Microtonal Guitar Live at Knitting Factory New York". A 2002 solo concert recording devoted to a microtonal guitar and electronics program informed by mentor Joe Maneri's Equal-Tempered 72-note system. Released at the heels of his debut recordings as a leader 'Eternity Check', initiated by Hostfalt's mentor, American avantgarde pioneer Paul Bley, the following release, funded by utilizing a artist network, and pressed up in 300 ( since long sold out ) copies - '29 Microtonal Pieces' was considering it's independent production and unorthodox program very well-received.

" Sten Hostfalt takes the rigid confines of the Guitar and transforms it into an instrument capable of exploring the minute spaces between traditional notes by using altered tunings, mechanical preparations and electronically enhanced techniques. 29 Pieces for The Microtonal Guitar shows just how far an instrument can be bent and altered to meet a more experimental and adventurous need, taking you on a journey to a place where rules simply don't exist. For those with ears broad enough to allow for the possibility that music can extend beyond the expected, and expand the potent boundaries of experience." John Kelman, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

'Beyond Rapturous, high density, highly logical in a completely different way, highly recommended' JAZZ NOW 'Rants And Raves' GUITAR PLAYER Another angle on exploring you will not want to miss' CADENCE MAGAZINE

Stylistically Jazz Now drew comparisons to John Fahey and Derek Bailey. Guitar Player's 'Rants and Raves' column placed the work next to 'The 21st Century Guide To King Crimson'. While Cadence pointed out Captain Beefheart and Jimi Hendrix influences. Since the debut CD's, Sten Hostfalt has produced five more-all in all seven recordings as a leader, on his own label, Sonus Rex ( ex g-wOw ), in the process, enlisting engineers Greg Thompson ( They Might be Giants, David Byrne, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Justin Bieber, Korn ) Doug Henderson ( Anthony and The Johnsons, Devendra Banhart, Swans, Sleep, System of a Down ) and Eric Tew ( Super Furry Animals, Ted Leo, Boss Hog, Dixie Chicks, Sheryl Crow, Phife Dawg, Fountains of Wayne ) at some of New York's most influential new millennium era studios-Micro-Moose and Kampo, and via grants from the Cultural Committee of Sweden at Le Triton, Paris France and in the Swedish Radio studio.

" Sten Hostfalt's prepared guitar explorations combine jazz soloing with surreal effects ; we're Impressed with his fast fingers and intense focus " TIME OUT NEW YORK ' Inimitable, There Are Few Musicians like Sten Hostfalt ' - PAPER MAGAZINE

A leader/co-leader of groups and projects ever since the late 1970's, Sten Hostfalt's recordings have featured electric bass guitar virtuoso Matthew Garrison ( Zawinul Syndicate, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Steve Coleman ) , trumpet player and keyboardist Takuya Nakamura ( Brazilian Girls, The Streets, CoCo Rosie, Quincy Jones ) , drummer Marko Djordjevic and tenor saxophonist Matt Renzi. His performances as a leader of ensembles G-Factor ( AKA Ghost Factor ), K-MOD, Soft Value, Sten Hostfalt Trio / Quartet and Dimensional States, has during the past three decades hosted bassists Tim Luntzel ( Rosanne Cash, Norah Jones ) , Matt Pavolka, Masa Kamaguchi, Richard Hammond , Shayna Dulberger, saxophonists Ole Mathisen, Seamus Blake and Noah Preminger, drummers Jimmy Weinstein, Blake Lindberg, Dave Miller, Federico Ughi and Cyril Atef ( Cheb Mami, Salif Keita ), vibraphonist Tom Beckham and vocalists Melissa Kassel, Liliana Santon and Constance Cooper.

As a sideman, Hostfalt contributed to the rise of a new generation in electronica via live performances with Collin Palmer, CALMER, and was featured in shared events with Praveen, Travis Stewart AKA Machinedrum ( Azealia Banks, Jesse Boykins III ), Theophilus London ( Warner Bros, Kanye West, Rihanna ), Keith Murray ( DEF Squad ), Addiquit and MOBY. As a guitarist in Marko Djordjevic's fusion outfit SVETI, 2006-09 Hostfalt performed with young jazz fusion talents Nir Felder, Janek Gwizdala and Brad Mason. Longtime membership of New York's 'Downtown scene' ( since appearing with Guillermo Klein at 'old' Knitting Factory in 1995 ) has included 70 performances, and the CD 'Now Matter' with saxophonist Blaise Siwula and shared events with Tim Berne, Daniel Carter, Bern Nix, Ray Anderson, Herb Robertson and Bob Stewart.

'A bunch of A-list adventurous Jazz types play Sten Hostfalt's microtonal Dimensional States for Orchestra' - NEW YORK MUSIC DAILY

Prior to his new millennium focus on work as a leader, Mr. Hostfalt apprenticed in jazz orchestras led by Phil Wilson and Herb Pomeroy ( taking over the guitar chair after in one of the very last editions of the legendary Berklee 'Recording Band' that known from the 'Jazz In The Classsroom recordings' since the 50's featured Branford Marsalis, Joe Zawinul, Toshiko Akiyoshi, John Abercrombie and Quincy Jones ), briefly with George Russell ( the NEC Big Band ) and as a guitarist and featured soloist on Guillermo Klein's debute 'El Minotauro' (1994 Beat/1997 Candid) in 'Big Van'-the first edition of Klein's lauded large ensemble, a lineup described as 'unlike any other-one of the better continuing experiments in New York' by the New York Times, noted by All Music Guide for it's 'brilliant soloists' and in retrospect deemed semi-legendary' by Jazz Times Magazine. A creative format through which Hostfalt was introduced on the 90's New York Jazz scene alongside leading new generation jazz voices Chris Cheek, Mark Turner, Seamus Blake, Aaron Goldberg, Jeff Ballard and Melvin Butler at Mitch Borden's Jazz Club, Smalls weekly during the inception of the subsequently famed venue.

At the end of the 90's, Hostfalt toured and recorded in Sweden, Norway and Finland with Swedish Sandviken Big Band, in support of mainstream Jazz artists Rob McConnell, Bobby Shew and Deborah Brown at leading concert halls and shared festival events with Ray Brown, James Moody, Phil Woods, Tower of Power, Woody Herman Big Band and Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen.

A US East Coast resident for the better part of the past 30 years and a long-time New Yorker, Sten Hostfalt was born in 1962 in Lulea, Sweden and became a naturalized American Citizen by way of late 1980's-early 90's scholarships honorary awards and degrees from two of the world's foremost institutions in modern music-Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory. Initially self-taught as a guitarist and composer, he studied classical guitar from age 16, had didactic encounters with legendary fingerstyle Blues guitarists Big Joe Williams and Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown and attended a workshop with Jazz piano master Horace Parlan and engaged in a period of self-studies that generated a Bachelor's Degree with honors and as an Outstanding Musicianship Award recipient from Berklee College of Music, a Master of Music Degree in Composition and a Graduate Diploma in Jazz Performance from New England Conservatory, as an honors emissary and via studies with Jimmy Giuffre, Joe Maneri, Paul Bley, Mick Goodrick and George Russell. Along with concert performances with masters of Jazz Gary Burton, Peter Erskine and Clare Fischer and masterclasses with 20th century composition masters Toru Takemitsu and Gyorgi Ligeti.

Subsequent academic work has included being a faculty member at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, lecturing at Berklee College of Music and at the New World School for The Arts, Miami FL, at the University of Florida. Since 2009 Mr. Hostfalt is a faculty member of New York Jazz Academy, an educational organization through which he has appeared in concerts at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. Since 2006 he directs his own Manhattan and Ridgewood New York based educational operation Sten's Guitar Studio, a multi-genre facility known as one of few places anywhere to offer microtonal music studies on the standard 6-string / 12-fret guitar.

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