Fretting the Future is a video series in which I explore the evolving possibilities of the guitar through contemporary music, experimentation, and close listening.

Rooted in classical technique but unconstrained by tradition, I approach the guitar as an instrument that is never quite finished. Every tuning, every technique, and every musical tradition imagines a different guitar, inviting new ways of hearing and new ways of making music. Each episode documents the collaborative process through which new music takes shape, from the first rehearsal to performance. Guided by conversation, experimentation, and close listening, Fretting the Future follows a process of discovery, remaining open to where each collaboration leads.

“The history of ideas has also got to be the history of people liking each other. Art is marked by these moments when certain artists take a liking to each other. They get along, they become friends. Something like love circulates between them.”
— Pola Oloixarac, Mona: A Novel

These episodes are my little love letters. — Thomas Schuttenhelm‍ ‍