Photo courtesy of Cuneiform Records.

French guitarist Richard Pinhas is no stranger to groundbreaking musicianship. In the 1970s, he played guitar for the influential band Heldon before breaking away from the traditional format. The result has been thirty years of collaborations and solo efforts that push the envelope of what a guitar album can sound like. His most recent release, Metal/Crystal contains dizzying, swirling guitar melodies, but also hissing, hypnotic drone that threatens to overwhelm the listener with its weight. It’s alternately very dark and very freeing; the result of two years of tragedy for Pinhas.

Pinhas will be playing a set at tonight’s Sonic Circuits event at the Maison Francaise with another influential international noisemaker: Merzbow. Beginning in Baltimore on the 29th, Pinhas will begin a mini-tour up the East Coast with one of America’s premier experimental acts: Wolf Eyes. We got a chance to talk to Pinhas about philosophy, working with international collaborators and the influences for Metal/Crystal, out on Silver Spring-based Cuneiform Records.

Had you heard of Sonic Circuits before you were invited to play the festival?

To be honest, I just heard about it when we played a couple of times in Washington in some clubs. Last time, people told me about this circuit and the work of Jeff. Then Jeff contacted me one year ago to make a proposition to get with Merzbow after the double CD we made together and I’d say it was pretty hard because Masami, which is the real name of Merzbow, doesn’t want to move to much because he’s got animals and he said it’s a long trip. Which I can understand because coming from Tokyo is a very long way and at the end, Jeff gets Masami, so it was perfect.