Stylish and Influential Guitarists

 

I reshare this entertaining post regarding guitar players who have introduced their own style and mastery of the guitar.  Informative blurbs explain the unique playing styles of Robert Fripp, Ry Cooder, Adrian Belew, Derek Bailey, St. Vincent, Glen Branca, Tom Morello, Kurt Cobain, etc.

Very informative and fun post!

Six string boundary-breakers who redefined how we play guitar

It is Not Enough That They are Brilliant. They have also Created Their Own Instruments!

 

We already know these musicians as being supremely gifted performers and composers but it really blows my mind when I see an article like this that discusses artists like these who also develop their own instruments!  Amazing!  Take a look through the attached link to get the scoop on some of the incredible rigs the likes of Laurie Anderson, Stevie Wonder, Pat Metheney, Leon Theremin, and others have created to accentuate their music.  Wonderous Stories, indeed!

8 musicians who invented their own instruments and gadgets

Two Views Of Electronic Music and Synthesizers

These are two well composed documentaries regarding the time scale of which electronic music appeared and who the musical artists were who used synthesizers and composed with them.  "The Evolution of Electronic Music (1929-2019)" sketches out very early applications considered electronic music and plays a small sampling of the works being represented.  Although popular recordings which dabbled with synthesized tones in this documentary are skipped over in this work (No Beatles, Monkees, Byrds, Beach Boys mentions!). 

Our second documentary clearly focuses on this pop music synth implementation:

 The First Bands To Use Synths

The surprise is that The Beatles were far from the first popular band to use a synthesizer in their arrangements.  Our host travels back quite a bit further in the past to find his answer.  Amazing!

The Big One

World's Largest Pipe Organ 

"Andy Warhol - Exploding Plastic Inevitable" (1966?)

World renowned Pop Art maven, Andy Warhol, was very busy pursuing all forms of artistic expression in the 1960's.  He was in charge of a creative space called the Factory where he dabbled in painting, filmmaking, and the expressive possibilities of music.  Warhol decided to invite the New York based art rock group, The Velvet Underground to engage in providing the soundtrack for a mixed media spectacle called The Exploding Plastic Inevitable.  As seen in the accompanying video, films and a light show are projected off the hosting theatre's walls and the gyrating participants to produce a rather psychedelic tapestry.  You see a lot of Warhol's fellow participating "players" who appeared in his movies and other various happenings in action but scant views of The Velvets themselves.  The audio is very clipped and overdriven.  Too bad.  It would have been a rare, treasured document indeed if the seminal underground group had been adequately recorded.  That being said, The Velvets were more than capable of feeding back and serenading an attendant audience with their innovative noise baths.  This is just a bit too much!

The Lost and Found and Lost Chord

 In a moment of fleeting but desperately sought inspiration, the composer uncovered the musical passage he sought, propelled by his administration of the lost chord.  The moment of bliss was short lived, however, as no matter how he tried to relive his initial breakthrough, he could not adequately replay, thus, relive, that rare sensation of discovery and joy.  The lost chord remained fleeting.

Sound Experiments 7 (2020)

 

More sound and light twiddling crumbs.