Back in 2006, in her home country of Canada, Sherry Ostapovitch acquired a metal-bodied acoustic resonator guitar. It was a quiet epiphany - and it ushered in the change of direction that led to The Red Thumb. Previous Music for One recordings have incorporated effects, drones and tape processing, but for the moment Ostapovitch is, in her own words, "shunning electricity". The spare, tremulous music that makes up her latest release was captured in real time on a reel-to-reel tape machine.

If the methodology recalls Bert Jansch's debut album, recorded in a Camden flat nearly 45 years ago, these pieces reach even further out and back. Yes, there are ghostly echoes of Jansch and Renbourne, just as there are of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, but there's also a captivating openendedness. "Forwards And Back" traces gentle, rootsy patterns; its tentative cadences suggest time-worn traditions without resorting to cliche. "The Wind From the Irish Sea" is far more abstract and expansive - Ostapovitch somehow summons eerie skeins of feedback from her primitive set-up, and, as the strings buzz and rattle against the frets, the instrument is transformed from a guitar into an Aeolian harp, becoming a slave to elemental forces.

Throughout, the exquisite longueurs and contemplative silences are as expressive as the plucked, evanescent chords - they open up connections to the fraught spaces of Morton Feldman and to the introspective calligraphy of Taku Sugimoto. These airy, ascetic tendencies provide a graceful counterbalance to the dobro's rough-hewn overtones - or at least they do until the delicate, closing rendition of Skip James's "Devil's Got My Woman" guides the listener gently back down to Earth.

-Chris Sharp the Wire Feb 2009

Music for One - The Red Thumb (Perennial Sounds)
Music For One’s (aka Sherry Ostapovitch) previous recordings have featured electric (and often heavily manipulated) guitar and lo-fi effects, and feature compositions that fit somewhere between noise and white noise. On The Red Thumb, Ostapovitch uses an unadulterated metal-bodied, acoustic resonator guitar as her only tool, and the obsessive muse and relationship between the musician and instrument is both beguiling and eccentric. Recorded to tape, and forgoing any overdubs, allows the spaces to bask in a certain muted cacophony all of their own. Overall it seems that what has been offered appears to be dusted off cylindrical wax relics (shelved way back, when this music was way too ahead of it’s time). It’s stark hum and atmospheres release sublime drones - “Circadian Rhythms” and “The Wind From The Irish Sea” - and abstract melancholy, through intricate improvisation and unconventional and free structures - creating sounds that fog and drift upwards like smoke. Ostapovitch does not limit herself to the use of selected notes or chords, sometimes allowing the resonator to find it’s own way, or exploring the sound beyond its usual application by omitting the strings altogether. The closing cover of Skip James’ “Devil's Got My Woman” could be seen as having stamped influence on the set without having over informed it - a far distant cousin (twice removed).
-Willsk Leicester Bangs

Here's a lovely CD by Music For One. So you lonely folk with no one to share your music with finally have someone who cares about you. There really is something for everyone... the world is truly a beautiful place. 'The Red Thumb' is packaged in a delightful (I am happy today...) screen printed cardboard sleeve which immediately made me want to open it up and have a good poke around inside (always a pleasure). I twanged the CD on and it's all made by Sherry Ostapovitch and her acoustic resonator guitar. On the album are 12 beautifully played vignettes of delicate finger pluckery ala Basho and Fahey. They're almost sketches as they seem so sparse at times you'd wonder if they're finished or not. I think it leaves a lot to the imagination to be honest cos as I listen I feel much reasonably inspired to write and that doesn't happen too often these days. It's very soundtracky and very acoustic.... there's no electronics which were on previous albums so it's a more back to basics approach. In fact it reminds me of the Paris Texas soundtrack without all the slide guitar.... there's some definite similarities. Anyone into the whole solo acoustic guitar thing will love this as it's remarkably good! Check it.
-Ant Norman Records

Music for One is Sherry Ostapovitch, a Canadian avant-garde guitarist living and working in London. Since her debut EP in 2001, Sherry has been bending and coaxing beautiful sounds wrestled from a guitar, effects, and bits from the hardware store. Her latest full length album, The Red Thumb, released at the end of 2008 features twelve songs on resonator guitar. The effect is sublime, intricate and beautiful. In these cold winter months Music for One is your breath that you see on a cold day. The Red Thumb and other recordings are available to preview and purchase on Sherry’s website. Download “The Wind From the Irish Sea” below and enjoy yourself falling in.

I caught up with Sherry over a cup of Roiboos Eary Grey in a crooked South London house and here is what she told me.

JW: What is one of your favorite sounds and what does it mean to you?

SO: I really like the sound of crickets. They remind me of Canada in the summertime and a trip I took as a child to the Swiss alps with my family. Living in dense urban areas makes you yearn for the wilds some.

JW: Tell me about one of your most cherished records and why it is so important to you.

SO: I love them all… so it’s hard to pick just one.  I really love Oval’s “Systemisch.” I have it on mint/light green coloured see-thru vinyl and it almost sounds how it looks.  To me, it’s deeply hypnotic, malfunctioning digital music that has an amazing organic quality to it. The sound of CDs skipping never sounded so beautiful.

JW: Who is a woman that has inspired you in your life, musically or otherwise?

SO: Every woman past and present who struggles or has struggled against the odds to gain her equality, freedom, dignity and sense of self in a world that has consistently denied it.
-Jenny Woolworth's Women In Punk Blog

Music for One is the project of Canadian guitarist Sherry Ostapovitch, now based in the UK. Her reputation has slowly built up on the back of impressive live performances and a handful of EPs. Crafted out of melodic, looped guitar lines, rattles, scrapes and buzzes, OKeh is her most musical release to date.

These are certainly 'songs', but Ostapovitch stretches each of them almost to breaking point with delicate abstract explorations. They create an elusive atmosphere, like music seeping through the dusty gooves of an old 78 rpm LP issued by the legendary OKeh label, whose release of an album by blues singer Mamie Smith was an inspiration for this CD.

After years of listening to various guitarists demolish and fragment their instrument's inherent nature, it's a joy to hear someone unafraid to allow tunes to filter through the rubble. This is where OKeh triumphs. The 15 pieces here are testament to the removal of unnecessary elements in Sherry's musice but one shouldn't expect Reductionism in the vein of Taku Sugimoto or Annette Krebs. OKeh is an album of fully-fledged guitar songs, successfully using a number of approaches without being restrained by any of them.

-Jez Riley the wire April 2006

THIS 7" IS TWO SUPERB LIVE RECORDINGS FROM THE LITTLE KNOWN BUT VERY TALENTED    MUSIC FOR ONE. THE MAIN TRACK IS A DELIGHTFULLY MELANCHOLYINSTRUMENTAL    GUITAR PIECE WITH A GORGEOUS MELODIC SOUND AND GENTLE DELAY EFFECTS    TO ACCENTUATE THE MOOD. THE FLIPSIDE IS AN EXPERIMENTAL PIECE    WITH MORE OF AN AVANT GARDE FEEL. A CLUNKING, MECHANICAL RHYTHM    COUPLED WITH SCRATCHY SOUNDS AND GUITAR LICKS MAKE FOR UNCOMFORTABLE    BUT INTRIGUING LISTENING. EXCELLENT. IF YOU DON'T KNOW HER OTHER    STUFF YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT THE OTHER TWO CDS AS THEY ARE BOTH    SUPERB AS WELL. -SMALLFISH RECORDS

"A great 7" on Seren records by Music for One. This is lovely instrumental guitar music built up live using one of those special effects pedals. The nearest comparison is a minimilist (early) Papa M or Tristeza but there's also some of the sounds of Yellow 6 or that great Bexar Bexar album we loved so much last year. If the A side is pretty in extreme the B side visits more avant garde territories being a collection of noises and random guitar plucks. Well worth investigating."
-Norman Records

New nicely-packaged 45 from this Canadian born female guitarist now living in Nottingham. Side A builds upon and interweaves several simple guitar melodies which are both hypnotic and uplifting. "Post-rock" in the best sense of the word. The flip is a very different prospect- a slice of heavily improvised avant-guitar noise; processed buzzings, scratchings and scrapings which would not sound out of place on a Fred Frith record. Quite refreshing.
sea of shining shoryobuni

OUTSIDE IN IS THE SECOND RELEASE FROM THIS TALENTED MUSICIAN / SONGWRITER AND THIS TIME IT'S A TEN TRACK SELECTION OF LIVE TRACKS RECORDED IN THE UK AND CANADA. A SLIGHTLY MORE DIVERSE RANGE OF BEAUTIFUL GUITAR BASED TRACKS THAN THE FIRST CD (INCLUDING A COUPLE OF COLLABORATIONS) IT MANAGES TO BE ATMOSPHERIC, HAUNTING, FRAGILE AND POWERFUL AT THE SAME TIME. TRULY EXCELLENT AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.  smallfish records

I would say she plays a calming expansive music that opens up the sound of the guitar. It is harmonic and melodic, without necasserily using conventional chord sequences or tunes. Whilst Jazz fans may bemoan the lack of twiddling, she clearly displays technique and a control of the instrument...

-Daniel Weaver (alectro_ecoustic)

"MUSIC FOR ONE IS TRANSPLANTED CANADIAN SHERRY WHO NOW LIVES IN NOTTINGHAM. AND, BY GUM, SHE'S WRITING SOME ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC MUSIC. GENTLY SOOTHING SOLO GUITAR PIECES THAT OOZE ATMOSPHERE AND DRIP WITH ETHEREAL BEAUTY. THE SIX TRACKS ON THIS CD/EP ARE CLEVERLY ARRANGED AND USE OCCASIONAL ELECTRONICS TO ADD AN EVEN GREATER LEVEL OF DEPTH. AS YOU MAY HAVE GUESSED, I'M EXTREMELY KEEN AND I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS VERY HIGHLY." -smallfish records

"Music for One: solo electric guitar player who played at the first Beautiful Music. She uses pedals, sometimes with no inputs, just the sounds passed from pedal to pedal. Maybe with some small noise to start the chain going. Sounds abstract yet refined. Her guitar stuff is reminiscent of Fahey-Grubbs-O'Rourke at times." -Discorder, that mag from CITR

Definitely a good start to a gig and things only got better with Music for One - a band comprising of only Sherry, her guitar and a whole load of effects pedals and clever boxes - and long may it remain so because she gets better every time I see her. The sounds that her guitar makes range from stark melancholy to strange outer-space sounds via glitchy electronica, all of which are pretty amazing. That combined with some mind-bending visuals and a couple of whiskeys meant that I had to take a seat after her performance.
- Rich Hopkins (stolenwine e-zine)

Canadian, Sherry Ostapovitch, performed solo electric guitar. Using a variety of electronic pedals and devices she conjured up warm layers of sound which often sounded like other choral or orchestral instruments. Occasionally pushing the atmosphere into jagged tension to keep us on our toes, she took us on a leisurely journey into the imagination. A delicate and intelligent ambient music.
- Daniel Weaver (alectro_ecoustic)

Sherry mangles her guitar exquisitely.
- Anton Lockwood (Night With No Name)