‘One of the great lessons in painting school for me was the professor pointing right into my nose saying, “Rowe, you cannot paint a Caravaggio. Only Caravaggio can paint Caravaggio.” Suddenly trying to play guitar like Jim Hall seemed quite wrong. Who am I? What do I have to say? I probably thought about that for between five and eight years, just constantly reflecting on how to do it, and, in a flash, I found the solution. Look at the American school of painting, which was very provincial in the 1800s: they really wanted to do something original but didn’t know how to do it, the clue was to get rid of European painting, but how could they ditch European painting, what did they have to do to do that? And Jackson Pollock did it - he just abandoned the technique. How could I abandon the technique? Lay the guitar flat! All that it’s doing is angling the body [of the guitar] from facing outwards to facing upwards - the strings remain horizontal, the strings are the same.’ – Keith Rowe ‘Those effect pedals aren’t very flexible anyway. They often do just one sound, or a little variation on it. But I’m interested in the relation between multiple sounds, placing them in order, or juxtaposing them to create a sonic progression. But for that, and for the people you’re playing with, you need to be flexible and fast. I figured the best way was to use all sorts of materials to agitate the strings, sticks, stones, screws, metals, motors and the like, because a slight change in the position of the screw can create something totally different. For many, many years I couldn’t pass by a hardware store without checking out the materials, and the only thing I regret is that they don’t let you in with a guitar and an amp to test everything.’ – Hans Tammen ‘The possibilities inherent in the physical relationship between object, string, and pickup is pretty exciting stuff. Developing a language through such methods also really sets you in your own space.’ ... ‘Since instrument preparation lends itself well to improvising, I like to avoid the pitfalls of routine and attempts to recreate.’ – Bill Horist
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