The debut album Maximillian is now streaming worldwide and is available on CD via the online store.

Maximillian is the debut self-titled album of Maximillian Rudd. A showcase of guitar mastery rooted in his attentive compositions, the album features eight originals plus a cover of Randy Newman’s You Got a Friend in Me. Rudd, who plays a Brazilian seven-string guitar, adorns his beautiful melodies with his diverse South American musical influences. Undeniably a student of the violão brasileiro, the great tradition of Brazilian guitar, Rudd has proven himself a burgeoning outsider amongst a lineage of virtuoso guitarists and musical innovators, from Baden Powell, to Raphael Rabello and beyond. Rudd meticulously collects and absorbs his musical influences which, outside of Brazil, include American guitarist Leo Kottke, inherit in his the bluegrass throw-down of Bones Road, as well as the music of New Orleans, found in his catchy jilted love-song, Waited so Long.

As an instrumentalist and occasional vocalist, Rudd’s performance engages with seasoned ears, hinting at the ‘this and that’ of modern guitar culture, sewing it all together with the subtle creativity of an eclectic musical upbringing. The album draws together the ever-colliding worlds of the Americas, from New Orleans southward bound, rendering it a series of portraits within which listeners can glimpse the nuances of music’s global mobility in the modern era of mass media, from the personal perspective of a young Australian artist.

“Maximillian’s self-titled debut album is a beautiful display of who exactly Maximillian is, the perfect first album. The album is an exquisite showcase of his obvious technical abilities on the Brazilian seven-string guitar while also not taking himself too seriously, creating a relaxed and pleasant mood.”

Jasmine Turner, Forte Magazine

Read the album review here.