2025 Stock. Sir Richard Bishop returns with another chapter in his ongoing exploration of solo acoustic guitar territories. Solo Acoustic Volume Eight presents a three-part suite titled Hypostasis - a extended meditation that finds the master guitarist weaving together familiar themes with entirely new compositional ideas across both sides of the vinyl.

Known for his legendary work with Sun City Girls and his deep immersion in global guitar traditions, Bishop has spent decades developing a style that defies categorization. The Hypostasis suite connects American primitive guitar, Middle Eastern modal systems, flamenco techniques, and pure sonic invention into something entirely his own. The playing is virtuosic without ever becoming academic - Bishop's fingers dance across the strings with the authority of someone who has internalized decades of musical traditions and then exploded them into new forms.

Hypostasis Part I opens the journey on side A, establishing the thematic materials that will develop across the entire work. Parts II and III on side B continue the exploration - each section building organically as Bishop draws from deep wells, references that stretch back to classic jazz guitar traditions and forward into uncharted sonic territory. This is not a collection of separate pieces but a unified statement, a singular performance that showcases Bishop's complete command of the instrument and his fearless approach to long-form improvisation.

This 2014 release captures Bishop at a peak moment of creative power. The suite unfolds with narrative logic yet remains open to spontaneous discovery - flamenco picking meeting Jungian consciousness, street-level immediacy transformed through contemplative distance. Each part flows into the next with inevitable grace, building tension and release across the vinyl's two sides. The recording quality is pristine, allowing every harmonic overtone and percussive attack to resonate fully.

"Need flamenco picking on the streets, but Jungian consciousness symbols in the sheets? Sleepy & even polite on the surface, due to SRB borrowing someone's very un-Andalusian acoustic while staying by Lake Geneva in Switzerland for several months to work with a dance troupe. Underneath, there's still plenty of violent gang battles, as SRB's various improv takeoff platforms (that run back to Improvika's 'Mystic Minor 23' & Django's 'Echoes of Spain') slowly bleed out into one huge song. Points if you notice the two-second spot that almost slips into the opening of 'Pinball Wizard'" Weirdo Records