(Bongo Joe / Mountains of Tongues, Baku)

Excited about the European debut of this sharp dressing, mild-mannered guitar god of the Caucasus!

Rəhman Məmmədli's blazing, psychedelic guitar music sprang from one of the most tumultuous and transformative periods in Azerbaijan’s history, capturing both the spirit and the contradictions of its time. In the years since, he has become the emblem of Azerbaijan’s gitara music - a unique subculture that developed around the electric guitar. Next to the late Rüstəm Quliyev, whose "Azerbaijani Gitara" (Bongo Joe Records, 2020) introduced the West to this unique genre, which often sounds like Surf Music to untrained ears, Rəhman is the absolute don of this style - often going live on social media for hours on end, shredding.

Rəhman was born in 1961 in the Fuzuli district of Karabakh and grew up surrounded by and immersed in the music of that region. In his childhood, he had already mastered the garmon-accordion before coming across the guitar. After only a few days with a guitar in his hands he was able to play a whole range of melodies and was soon invited to join the Karabakh Ensemble as their guitarist. Following a short break from music, he began to release his own albums in the 1990s as a solo artist. Being deeply connected to traditional music, both the mugham and ashiq traditions, he has managed to transpose these genres onto the electric guitar through his creation of new and distinct playing techniques. His ability to emulate the voice of classic mugham singers led to him being given the nickname "the man with singing fingers".