Olive, Tim

The Specialist

Label: EM Records Country: Japan

Improviser Tim Olive's first full length solo CD is a set of realtime recordings using his electric guitar/bass hybrid machine without effects, microscopic & meticulous sound work. Inspired by the challenges he encountered during solo live sets in Japan, Australia and Singapore, and with recording and performance collaborations, The Specialist is the culmination of Olive's long artistic history; first in his homeland of Canada as an improv guitarist, and into the heart of Japan's experimental music scene.

"The CD was recorded in December 2008 and January 2009 in Osaka. I used my electric guitar/bass hybrid machine, essentially a piece of wood with two magnetic pickups, a bass string or two and occasionally an unwound guitar string. No effects, just an analog preamp. All reverb sounds are from springs and/or metal plates applied directly to the pickups. Everything ﾊwas recorded in real time, with overdubs on only two tracks. There are no song titles, as the music is not programmatic and I don't wish to impose any interpretations on the listener. I usually play and record with others (recent recording and multi-performance pals include Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Shinichi Isohata, Katsura Mouri from Busratch, Joel Stern, Adam Sussmann; plus long-running duos with Jeffrey Allport, Bunsho Nishikawa and Kelly Churko), but in 2008 I had the opportunity to play a relatively large number of solo sets (in Japan, Australia and Singapore) and enjoyed the challenges presented by solo action - thus this CD. The disc title refers to the gentleman on the cover (I looted the negatives from an abandoned building in Nagoya, added some color map transparencies and slapped it all into slide frames) and not necessarily to me. There is a fairly wide variety of dynamic ranges, densities and approaches here, though all pieces are concerned with texture and implied pulse rather than tonality and metrical rhythm - which perhaps could be construed as a kind of specialism... Please feel free to contact me at timolive@yahoo.com ; if you want the business, Kaptain Koki is the man."-Tim Olive