The Squid's Ear Magazine


Rowe, Keith: ErstLive 007 (erstwhile)

Keith Rowe's solo set from the Amplify 2008 festival in Tokyo uses guitars and radio broadcasts; surprisingly this is Rowe's first ever solo set in Tokyo.
 

Price: $13.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 2.00 units

Sample The Album:



product information:

Personnel:



Keith Rowe-guitar, electronics


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




Label: erstwhile
Catalog ID: ErstLive 007
Squidco Product Code: 11023

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2008
Country: USA
Packaging: Jewel Tray - slim line
Recorded at the Amplify 2008 festival in Tokyo, September 2008.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"ErstLive is a series of releases from Erstwhile Records, documenting notable live sets associated with the label. The discs are designed to simulate a concert experience, each in the same template design using two colors chosen by the musicians involved, with a photo of the concert on the back cover.

ErstLive 007 is a solo set from Keith Rowe, and took place on the second night of the AMPLIFY 2008: light festival in Tokyo in September 2008. This was Rowe's first ever solo set in Tokyo in his 40+ year career."-Erstwhile



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"tabletop guitarist and painter. Rowe is a founding member of both the influential AMM in the mid-1960s (though in 2004 he quit that group for the second time) and M.I.M.E.O. Having trained as a visual artist, Rowe's paintings have been featured on most of his own albums. After years of obscurity, Rowe has achieved a level of relative notoriety, and since the late 1990s has kept up a busy recording and touring schedule. He is seen as a godfather of EAI (electroacoustic improvisation), with many of his recent recordings having been released by Erstwhile Records.

Rowe began his career playing jazz in the early 1960s-notably with Mike Westbrook and Lou Gare. His early influences were guitarists like Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian and Barney Kessel. Eventually, however, Rowe grew tired of what he considered the form's limitations. Rowe began experimenting, slowly and gradually. An important step was a New Year's resolution to stop tuning his guitar-much to Westbrook's displeasure. Rowe gradually expanded into free jazz and free improvisation, eventually abandoning conventional guitar technique.

This change in his approach to guitar, Rowe reports, was partly inspired by a teacher in one of his painting courses who told him, "Rowe, you cannot paint a Caravaggio. Only Caravaggio can paint Caravaggio." Rowe reports that after considering this idea from a musical perspective, "trying to play guitar like Jim Hall seemed quite wrong." For several years Rowe contemplated how to reinvent his approach to the guitar, again finding inspiration in visual art, namely, American painter Jackson Pollock, who abandoned traditional painting methods to forge his own style. "How could I abandon the technique? Lay the guitar flat!"

Rowe developed various prepared guitar techniques: placing the guitar flat on a table and manipulating the strings, body and pick-ups in unorthodox ways to produce sounds described as dark, brooding, compelling, expansive and alien. He has been known to employ objects such as a library card, rubber eraser, springs, hand-held electric fans, alligator clips, and common office supplies in playing the guitar. A January 1997 feature in Guitar Player magazine described a Rowe performance as "resemble a surgeon operating on a patient." Rowe sometimes incorporates live radio broadcasts into his performances, including shortwave radio and number stations (the guitar's pick-ups will also pick up radio signals, and broadcast them through the amplifier).

AMM percussionist Eddie Prévost reports that Rowe has "an uncanny touch on the wireless switch", able to find radio broadcasts which seem to blend ideally with, or offer startling commentary on, the music. (Prévost, 18). On AMMMusic, towards the end of the cacophonous "Ailantus Glandolusa", a speaker announces via radio that "We cannot preserve the normal music." Prevost writes that during an AMM performance in Istanbul, Rowe located and integrated a radio broadcast of "the pious intonation of a male Turkish voice. AMM of course, had absolutely no idea what the material was. Later, it was complimented upon the judicious way that verses from The Koran had been introduced into the performance, and the respectful way they had been treated!" In reviewing World Turned Upside Down, critic Dan Hill writes, "Rowe has tuned his shortwave radio to some dramatically exotic gameshow and human voices spatter the mix, though at such low volume, they're unintelligible and abstracted. Rowe never overplays this device, a clear temptation with such a seductive technology - the awesome possibility of sonically reaching out across a world of voices requires experienced hands to avoid simple but ultimately short-term pleasure. This he does masterfully, mixing in random operatics and chance encounters with talkshow hosts to anchor the sound in humanity, amidst the abstraction." "

Some accounts report that Rowe's guitar technique was an influence on Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett: "Taking his cues from experimental guitarist Keith Rowe of AMM, Barrett strived to push his music farther and farther out into the zone of complete abstraction."

Rowe has worked together with numerous composers and musicians, including Cornelius Cardew, Christian Wolff, Howard Skempton, Jeffrey Morgan, John Tilbury, Evan Parker, Taku Sugimoto, Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Oren Ambarchi, Christian Fennesz, Burkhard Beins, Kurt Liedwart, Toshimaru Nakamura, David Sylvian and Peter Rehberg.

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Rowe)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Erstlive 007 36:32

Related Categories of Interest:

erstwhile

Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Guitarists, &c.
Electronic Forms
Instant Rewards

Search for other titles on the label:
erstwhile.


Recommended & Related Releases:



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Liedwart, Kurt / Julien Ottavi / Keith Rowe
L'Or
(Mikroton Recordings)
Translating to "Gold", the trio of Kurt Liedwart on modular synthesizer abd cracked everyday homemade electronics, Julien Ottavi on computer, and Keith Rowe on guitar & electronics recorded this album during Poland's Sanatorium Of Sound 2017 festival, bridging EA Improv, noise, minimal electronics and contemporary music in two large works.
Lambkin, Graham / Michael Pisaro-Liu
Schwarze Riesenfalter
(erstwhile)
Balancing active organized sound worlds from Graham Lambkin with Wandelweiser discretion from Michael Pisaro-Liu in five tracks that punctuate concrete sound compositions with Feldman-esque piano progressions, bound together by a short poem; captivating and elusive.
Frey, Jurg / Radu Malfatti
II
(erstwhile)
Two works, one each from trombonist Radu Malfatti and clarinetist Jurg Frey, also credited with "instruments", field recordings and couterpoints; electroacoustic reductionist work of beautiful character that unfolds slowly and rewards attentive listeners in morphing sound.
AMM w/ John Butcher
Trinity
(Matchless)
New 2008 recordings from AMM - Eddie Prevost & John Tilbury with John Butcher - performing at Trinity College of Music in Greenwich, England.
Lantner, Steve Quartet
Given - Live In Munster
(Hatology)
Pianist Steve Lantner's Quartet with Joe Morris, Luther Gray and Allan Chanse performing live at the 21st International Jazzfestival Munster in Germany.
Johnston, Darren
Edge Of The Forest
(Clean Feed)
Bay area trumpeter and bandleader Johntson in a set of original compositions performed with Ben Goldberg, Sheldon Brown, Devin Hoff and Smith Dobson.
O'Gallagher, John Trio
Dirty Hands
(Clean Feed)
New York alto saxophonist O'Gallagher's trio with Jeff Williams and Masa Kamaguchi recording during their tour through France and Portugal.
Lee, Peggy Band
New Code
(Drip Audio)
The 4th release by The Peggy Lee Band and the 1st with the band expanded from a sextet to an octet, with 3 horns and 2 guitars blending beautifully for a warm, full sound.
Townhouse Orchestra (E.Parker/ Sandell / Flaten / Nilssen-Love)
Belle Ville
(Clean Feed)
An all-star lineup for European free jazz with Evan Parker, Sten Sandell, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten and Paal Nilssen Love on a double CD recorded live at Belleville.
Cosmos
Tears
(erstwhile)
Howard, Earl / Denman Maroney
Fire Song
(erstwhile)



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC