SEAN SHIBE Guitarist

I love Julia Wolfe’s music – her piece Lad for nine bagpipes is such a crazy sound. It starts with them just ascending on a scale and sliding between their nine notes. They form this cyclical impression of constantly rising in pitch, except it never actually rises. It’s like a sine graph.

I’ve arranged Lad for electric guitar. The bagpipes have this ancient wailing mournful sound, and there’s an apocalyptic streak which an electric guitar can encompass – it’s this unstoppable force.

I had never heard Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time live until recently. It was fantastic. The performers included clarinettist Mark Simpson and cellist Sheku Kanneh-mason, and it was in the atmospheric Wilton’s Music Hall in London, which is perfect for something like this. There aren’t any words for the impact of this music – there’s so much profound pain and emotional scope within his language. Even when you get to the end and people are applauding, how can you applaud when your hands have evaporated?

The label Alia Vox is perfecting what I think albums should be: very ambitious and telling a story. My favourite is of ancient Basque music, called Euskel Antique, with guitarist and lutenist Enrik Solinís and the Euskal Barrokensemble. It’s just ecstatic music.