Turnquist

Turnquist is young—23—and serious, at least when it comes to music.

Alexandra Marvar: Alexander Turnquist's 'Hallway of Mirrors': Harmonics, Reverb and Acrylic Nails Alexandra Marvar 2011

Turnquist plays his heart out live in New York City this week.

Alexandra Marvar: Alexander Turnquist's 'Hallway of Mirrors': Harmonics, Reverb and Acrylic Nails Alexandra Marvar 2011

Turnquist performs tonight at Cameo Gallery and tomorrow at Trash Bar, both in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with chamber-pop virtuoso Liam Singer.

Alexandra Marvar: Alexander Turnquist's 'Hallway of Mirrors': Harmonics, Reverb and Acrylic Nails Alexandra Marvar 2011

Photo left to right: Christopher Tignor (violin), Liam Singer (piano), Turnquist, and Theo Metz (vibraphone), performing Hallway of Mirrors at the Hudson Opera House on 5/13/11.

Alexandra Marvar: Alexander Turnquist's 'Hallway of Mirrors': Harmonics, Reverb and Acrylic Nails Alexandra Marvar 2011

Today, experimental composer/guitarist Alexander Turnquist releases his fourth album Hallway of Mirrors—a beautiful and haunting 35-minute wash of sound, best played in full.

Alexandra Marvar: Alexander Turnquist's 'Hallway of Mirrors': Harmonics, Reverb and Acrylic Nails Alexandra Marvar 2011

(Jan Turnquist, director of the remarkable Orchard House Museum, in costume), who thanked me for being one of the very few who had tried to understand and appreciate her father.

A Conversation with Geraldine Brooks about People of the Book 2010

And beyond built-in fingerpicks, there are other ways Turnquist goes to great lengths for a natural sound—Hallway's instrumentation is absent of anything electronic, and its recording was done with analog tape and double-tracking methods.

Alexandra Marvar: Alexander Turnquist's 'Hallway of Mirrors': Harmonics, Reverb and Acrylic Nails Alexandra Marvar 2011

Turnquist shifts uncomfortably at the thought of having to amplify his guitar.

Alexandra Marvar: Alexander Turnquist's 'Hallway of Mirrors': Harmonics, Reverb and Acrylic Nails Alexandra Marvar 2011

Jan Turnquist at Orchard House was immensely helpful and always good humored.

Louisa May Alcott Susan Cheever 2010

Now lovingly restored and under the directorship of Jan Turnquist, a woman so in tune with Louisa May Alcott that she sometimes portrays Louisa by dressing in the clothes Louisa would have worn, Orchard House is backed by a stand of trees and sits near the Lexington Road about a mile away from the center of Concord.

Louisa May Alcott Susan Cheever 2010