Dave Ruder – Solo for Guitar
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THOUGHTS on SOLOs Solo for Guitar is an ongoing archiving project begun in Summer 2005. These tracks are an effort to chronicle moments of attention and inattention to craft, developments of language, syntax, and sound, and create a portrait of myself as an instrumentalist. It is by no means complete, but it is lovely just so. You could say that this is a bedroom album – something created without regard for the outside but something that when taken outside of its environment is more descriptive than pretty. The point of this collection is not that this material is all great, but it is all true. And that seems more important. Collections, such as albums, are a great way to stop yourself from changing your mind. Here is something I did. Now that it’s a collection and released in some sense, it has a greater life of its own. I look forward to creating solos for guitar beyond these ones, to continue to refine and qualify the portraits they paint.The basic process for these tracks: while practicing this instrument, I might become fixated on a particular idea. These ideas didn’t feel like a song or a piece, they felt like a physical manifestation of my relationship with the guitar. They arose calmly, without much fanfare, and by recording them I made them more true. They are what survives, in part, because they arose in moments that felt like they might benefit from the shine of history that documentation provides.A few of these Solos (#10, #14, & #17) have gone on to a later life as a song or piece. There’s no sense in throwing something out – while many of these ideas serve their purpose as trail markers, one should always be able to (at least try to) reconstruct the past in the form of the present. But for now, enjoy this bundle of historical sound. May they live on in myriad forms and may new ones arise to take their place. Amen, Dave Ruder, October 2012 |
