Chris Rainier
Man And The Echo
Chris Rainier is a musician and artist from Melbourne, Australia, now living in the U.K. Before I heard his music I saw the beautiful white and blue vinyl with the maps printed on the inlay and so I looked it up and found out, he's playing a prepared Weissenborn lap steel guitar.
I didn't expect syncopated country blues or hawaiian slide guitar, when I read that he's using tape loops and other electronics and I wasn't wrong.
Notable is the superb quality of the recording! Crystal clear and very well balanced, like sitting next to him or better inside his instrument! The microtonality of every scratch and plug of the strings is reproduced in its full spectrum. He writes that tape loops and delay became the corner stones of the record, which is almost completely improvised.
I spent over a year exploring this amazing instrument's capabilities and potential, experimenting with tunings, unorthodox musical styles, and various preparations on and between the strings. I approached the instrument from what was hopefully a unique creative perspective, looking for new sounds, techniques and emotional landscapes. This was all done to try and make this record - my first using the Weissenborn - something different, multi-faceted and engaging.
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I don't believe that a Weissenborn has ever been heard like this before, and that this album genuinely explores the multiplicity of sonic possibilities available within the instrument.
-- Chris Rainier
It reminds me a bit of another Australian musician who works with traditional instruments and audio synthesis, Andrew Tuttle.
Another great record from Rainier's bandcamp is "The Humming of the Wires" where he's exploring the Dobro guitar and putting this iconic instrument of the blues era into the context of early electronic inventions like the Theremin.
There is lot to explore in Chris Rainiers sonic universe! Highly recommended!
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