Keith Rowe (born March 16, 1940 in Plymouth, England) is an English free improvisation guitarist and painter. March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (76th in leap years). ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Plymouth is a city of 243,795 inhabitants (2001 census) in the south-west of England, or alternatively the West Country, and is situated within the traditional and ceremonial county of Devon at the mouths of the rivers Plym and Tamar and at the head of one of the world... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the King (Queen) England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Queen Queen Elizabeth II  -  Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification  -  by Athelstan 967  Area... Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the taste of the musicians involved, and not in any particular style. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Painting by Rembrandt self-portrait Detail from Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, in which the painter portrayed himself at work For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter. ...

Rowe is a founding member of AMM in the mid-1960s (though in 2004 he quit that group for the second time) and a founding member of M.I.M.E.O. He trained as a visual artist, and Rowe's paintings have been featured on most of his own albums. AMM is an important British free improvisation group, founded in London, England in 1965. ... M.I.M.E.O. is a free improvisation group formed in 1997 on the initiative of several independent concert promoters in Europe. ...

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 electroacoustic improvisation, and many of his recent recordings have been released by Erstwhile Records. Electroacoustic improvisation is a recent branch of improvised electroacoustic music characterized by quiet, slow moving, minimalistic textures and often utilizing laptop computers or unorthodox forms of electronics. ... Erstwhile Records is an independent record label devoted to free improvisation; characteristic label artists include Keith Rowe, Günter Müller, Otomo Yoshihide, Voice Crack, Fennesz, Burkhard Stangl, Thomas Lehn. ...

Biography

Rowe began his career playing jazz in the early 1960's--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. Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States around the start of the 20th century. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... Mike Westbrook (b. ... Lou Gare (born June 16, 1939) is an English free-jazz saxophonist born in Rugby, Warwickshire, perhaps best-known for his works with the band AMM and playing with musicians such as Eddie Prévost, Mike Westbrook, Cornelius Cardew and Keith Rowe. ... John Leslie Wes Montgomery was an African-American jazz guitarist. ... Charlie Christian (29 July 1916 – 2 March 1942) was an American jazz guitarist. ... Cover of a Barney Kessel album. ... A New Years Resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the taste of the musicians involved, and not in any particular style. ...

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!"[1] For building painting, see painter and decorator. ... Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610) was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. ... James Stanley Hall (born December 4, 1930, Buffalo, New York) is an American jazz guitarist. ... Controversy swirls over the alleged sale of No. ...

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). A prepared guitar is a guitar which has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instruments strings, including other extended techniques. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Guitar Player magazine contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. ... A cardiothoracic surgeon performs a mitral valve replacement at the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. ... This article is about an album. ... Numbers stations are shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin that broadcast streams of numbers, words, or phonetic sounds. ...

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!" (Prévost, 18) 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."[2] Istanbul (Turkish: , Greek: , historically Byzantium and later Constantinople; see other names) is Turkeys most populous city, and its cultural and financial center. ... The Quran (Arabic al-qurʾān أَلْقُرآن; also transliterated as Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ...

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." [3] Pink Floyd are an English rock band that earned recognition for their psychedelic rock music, and, as they evolved, for their avant-garde style and for being pioneers of progressive rock music. ... Roger Keith Syd Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006 in Cambridge, United Kingdom) was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, and artist. ...

Rowe has worked together with numerous composers and musicians, including Cornelius Cardew, Christian Wolff, Howard Skempton, Taku Sugimoto, Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Oren Ambarchi, Christian Fennesz and Peter Rehberg. Cornelius Cardew (May 7, 1936 – London, December 13, 1981) was an English avant-garde composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. ... Christian Wolff is the name of at least two notable individuals: an eighteenth-century philosopher and mathematician - see Christian Wolff (philosopher) a twentieth_century composer _ see Christian Wolff (composer) a German actor This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the... Howard Skempton (b. ... Taku Sugimoto is a Japanese guitarist. ... Otomo Yoshihide (大友 良英) (born August 1, 1959) is a Japanese experimental musician. ... Sachiko Matsubara, who usually records as Sachiko M, is a Japanese musician. ... Oren Ambarchi is an electronic guitarist and percussionist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. ... Christian Fennesz (born December 25, 1962) is an Austrian musician who uses white noise to create his electronic compositions. ... Peter Rehberg (a. ...

Sources

• Edwin Prévost: No Sound Is Innocent: AMM and the Practice of Self-Invention--Meta-Musical Narratives, Essays Copula, 1995; ISBN 0952549204

External links

• Discography, links, mp3 samples: [4]
• A 2001 Interview [5]