Keith Rowe performing solo at the AMPLIFY 2008 festival, Kid Ailack Art Hall, Tokyo

Keith Rowe (born 16 March 1940 in Plymouth, England) is an English free improvisation tabletop guitarist and painter. Rowe is a founding member of both the hugely 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.

Biography[link]

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.^[1] 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.^[2] 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!"^[3]

Rowe developed various prepared guitar techniques: placing the guitar flat on a table and manipulating the strings, body and pickups 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 pickups will also pick up radio signals, and broadcast them through the amplifier).

Axel Dörner and Keith Rowe in Chicago, Illinois, 22 September 2004.

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!" ^[4] 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."^[5]

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." ^[6]

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, Toshimaru Nakamura and Peter Rehberg.

External links[link]

• Discography, links, mp3 samples: [3]
• A 2001 Interview [4]
• In Conversation with Richard Pinnell on the Audition Radio Show, Dublin, 01.04.06 [5]
• A 2007 Interview [6]

References[link]

John Tilbury (born 1 February 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM.

Early life and education[link]

Tilbury studied piano at the Royal College of Music with Arthur Alexander and James Gibb and also with Zbigniew Drzewiecki in Warsaw. 1968 he was the winner of the Gaudeamus competition in the Netherlands.

Musical career[link]

During the 1960s, Tibury was closely associated with the composer Cornelius Cardew, whose music he has interpreted and recorded and a member of the Scratch Orchestra. His biography of Cardew, "Cornelius Cardew - A life unfinished" was published in 2008.

Tilbury has also recorded the works of Howard Skempton and John White, among many others, and has also performed adaptations of the radio plays of Samuel Beckett.

With guitarist AMM bandmate Keith Rowe's electroacoustic ensemble M.I.M.E.O., Tilbury recorded The Hands of Caravaggio, inspired by the painter's The Taking of Christ {1602). In this live performance, twelve of the members of M.I.M.E.O. were positioned around the piano in a deliberate echo of Christ's Last Supper. The thirteenth M.I.M.E.O. member (Cor Fuhler) is credited with "inside piano" as he interacted and interfered with Tilbury's playing by manipulating and damping the instrument's strings, essentially doing piano preparation in real time. Critic Brian Olewnick describes the album as "A staggering achievement, one is tempted to call The Hands of Caravaggio the first great piano concerto of the 21st century."[1].

Another notable recent recording of Tilbury's was Duos for Doris (like The Hands of Caravaggio also on Erstwhile Records), a collaboration with Keith Rowe. It is widely considered a landmark recording in the genre of electroacoustic improvisation (or "EAI").

Selected discography[link]

• 1975 - "John Cage: Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano" - Decca
• 1988 - "Dave Smith's First Piano Concert" - Matchless
• 1996 - "Howard Skempton: Well, Well, Cornelius" - Sony Classical
• 1996 - "Cornelius Cardew: Piano Music 1959~70" - Matchless
• 1998 - "The Issue at Hand" (with Yoshikazu Iwamoto, Eddie Prévost) 2CD - Matchless
• 1999 - "Two Chapters and an Epilogue" (with Evan Parker - Matchless
• 2000 - "Morton Feldman: All Piano" 4CD - LondonHALL
• 2002 - MIMEO "The Hands of Caravaggio" - Erstwhile
• 2002 - "Christian Wolff: Early Piano Music (1951-1961)" - Matchless
• 2003 - Keith Rowe, John Tilbury "Duos for Doris" - Erstwhile
• 2004 - John Tilbury, Eddie Prévost "Discrete Moments" - Matchless
• 2005 - "Plays Samuel Beckett" - Matchless
• 2005 - "Barcelona Piano Solo" - Rossbin
• 2005 - Marcus Schmickler, John Tilbury "Variety" - A-Musik
• 2009 - "Music for Piano and Strings by Morton Feldman volume 1" (with the Smith Quartet) DVD - Matchles
• 2010 - "Cornelius Cardew: Works 1960-70" with Michael Francis Duch and Rhodri Davies
• 2011 - Keith Rowe, John Tilbury "E.E. Tension and Circumstance" - Potlatch

External links[link]

• John Tilbury Statement
• On Playing Feldman by John Tilbury
• May 2010 All About Jazz Interview

Radu Malfatti
Radu Malfatti during soundcheck before his first concert in Galicia on 2008.
Background information
Origin	Innsbruck, Austria
Genres	experimental
Years active	1975–present
Labels	Erstwhile Records, B-boim
Associated acts	Polwechsel

Radu Malfatti is an Austrian trombone player and composer. He was born in Innsbruck, in the province of Tyrol, on December 16, 1943. He has been described as "among the leaders in redefining the avant-garde as truly on-the-edge art."^[1] His work "since the early nineties... has been investigating the edges of ultraminimalism in both his composed and improvised work."^[2] He also operates B-Boim, a CD-R only record label focusing on improvised and composed music, much of it his own.

Selected discography[link]

• Zwecknagel (Free Music Production, 1981)
• Dach - with Phil Durrant and Thomas Lehn (Erstwhile, 2001)
• Whienoise - with Mattin (w.m.o/r, 2004)
• Goat vs Donkey - with Taku Unami (Taumaturgia, 2009)
• Imaoto - with Klaus Filip (Erstwhile, 2009)

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p40193
2. ^ http://www.erstwhilerecords.com/catalog/055.html

External links[link]

• Interview with Radu Malfatti
• Discography at Discogs.com
• B-boim Website

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Oren Ambarchi is an Australian musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays mainly electric guitar and drums.^[1]

Biography[link]

Oren Ambarchi was born in Sydney, Australia to an Iraqi Jewish family.^[1]Ambarchi has been performing live since 1986. In the late 1980s he played free jazz in Sydney, originally as a drummer.^[2] In an interview with ABC Radio broadcaster, Jon Rose, Ambarchi described how he started playing guitar,

There happened to be one laying around in our rehearsal room. I picked it up and starting hitting it with drumsticks and using it in whatever way I wanted to use it in, and one thing led to another. I'm glad I wasn't trained. I've always loved rock music, I grew up listening to pop and rock, so that was in my mind, but I've also been interested in electronics. I never wanted to learn to play it properly, it was an object as much as an instrument.^[2]

He was a member of noise band Phlegm with Robbie Avenaim, with whom he co-organised the What Is Music Festival. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, though he also plays drums and percussion in some of his live performances.^[3]

Sunn O))) Collaborations[link]

Ambarchi contributed to drone doom band Sunn O)))'s Black One album in 2005, and has since become a frequent live performer with the band, as well as contributing to the Oracle EP and Monoliths & Dimensions album.^[4] He also released a vinyl EP with Attila Csihar and Sunn O)))'s Greg Anderson under the name Burial Chamber Trio; and has performed with Attila Csihar and Stephen O'Malley, the other half of Sunn O))), under the name Gravetemple. Ambarchi also works in popular music contexts and is a drummer for the group Sun with vocalist Chris Townend formerly of Kiss My Poodles Donkey.

In May 2010 he performed live with Boris at the Vivid Live Noise Night curated by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. Ambarchi collaborated with multi-instrumentalist Paul Duncan of Warm Ghost on experimental music projects.^[5]

Partial Discography[link]

• (1999) Clockwork, with Robbie Avenaim (Jerker Productions; ::room40:: reissue 2005)
• (1999) The Alter Rebbe's Nigun, with Robbie Avenaim (Tzadik Records)
• (2000) Insulation (Touch)
• (2000) Afternoon Tea with Christian Fennesz, Paul Gough, Peter Rehberg, Keith Rowe (Ritornell)
• (2002) Suspension (Touch)
• (2003) Sun (Preservation Records)
• (2003) Triste (Idea Records (US)))
• (2003) My days are darker than your nights with Johan Berthling (Häpna)
• (2004) Grapes from the Estate (Touch)
• (2005) Cloud with Keith Rowe, Toshimaru Nakamura and Christian Fennesz (Erstwhile)
• (2005) Black One with Sunn O))) (Southern Lord)
• (2006) Squire with Keith Rowe (For4Ears Records)
• (2000) Stacte Motors (Western Vinyl)
• (2007) In the Pendulum's Embrace (Touch)
• (2007) Grave Temple with Stephen O'Malley and Attila Csihar (Southern Lord Records)
• (2007) Burial Chamber Trio with Greg Anderson and Attila Csihar (Southern Lord Records)
• (2008) Spirit Transform Me with Z'EV (Tzadik)
• (2009) Monoliths & Dimensions with Sunn O))) (Southern Lord)
• (2010) Tima Formosa with Jim O'Rourke and Keiji Haino (Black Truffle)^[6]
• (2011) In A Flash Everything Comes Together As One There Is No Need For A Subject with Keiji Haino and Jim O'Rourke (Black Truffle/Medama)
• (2012) Audience Of One (Touch)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Oren Ambarchi.com - Official website
• Live at CTM-festival in Berlin