The Undiscovered: Hal

Yes, you read that right... Hal. The artist named Hal. Well his real name is Damir Halilic, but Hal apparently seems to roll off the tongue a little easier. Hal's playing on his latest CD, Infinity is all business - he's a classically trained guitarist who plays in the best American fingerstyle tradition. Rather than populate a CD full of solo instrumental tracks, Hal has chosen to display his prodigious talent in various settings, such as vocal tracks, full band arrangements, and percussive duos, as well as solo guitar. Infinity thus suggests the infinity of a steel string player's expressive potential. The instrumental track "Leo's Dance" (a tribute to Leo Kottke) is a wonderful example of Hal's appetite for creative arrangement, beginning as it does with solo guitar, adding percussion later, and winding up with a full band coda. Hal's dedication to the guitar carries Infinity up to a higher level, one that should be experienced by open minded steel-string fans the world over.

Hal's musical beginnings are tied to attendance at the music school in his hometown of Rijeka, where he studied the classical guitar. Aside from playing the guitar, he also played the mandolin in his school band. Later, during his high school, Hal played in many local bands. He spent time in a band called Public, and after that band broke up, Hal composed for the theater plays, worked as a studio musician (his guitar playing can be heard on numerous records released by Croatian mainstream musicians). Hal later opened a guitar school and released his solo album "Ocean". He has performed at Rijeka's National Theatre, with a repertoire that has a unique historical dimension - he plays some classical compositions, blues compositions written at the mouth of the Mississippi in the 1920s, Scott Joplin's ragtime standards, Celtic dances, and even W.A. Mozart, played on electric guitar.

Recently, Hal gave three concerts with the great Tommy Emmanuel. More than two thousand people saw the shows in Rijeka, Pula and Zagreb.

Dancing Bear
Croatia

Web site: www.halmusic.info