N O Moore electric guitar

Electric guitar is an obstacle to the body. By this, I mean that my experience of the instrument is as a set of resistances that I have to engage with and struggle against. Engagement with the physical entity is the process, but this does not mean that what results always sounds like a struggle. It is a bit like a combat, which can sometimes be very beautiful and other times a bit messy. Like certain martial artists who move gracefully with speed and who also know how to harness stillness and inertia.

This emphasis might sound like a matter of ‘mere’ craft. I am fine with that, and always prefer the artisan to the artist. Any seeming difference between physicality and the ‘idea’ of music is, for me, in error. There is no difference between music and dance in this sense. Some years back, I had the chance to work a little with a dancer, and I enjoyed that very much. Having an idea about music is not a problem, because the most simple things can be effective, and I am very happy when complexity emerges from a few simple gestures. Physicality is always more complicated than any mental process, and for this reason the most important thing in music is sensuality, followed by thinking.
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Practising guitar is like a meditative process, for me at least. I can practice very easily for hours and it is like no time has passed. I would like to do that every day but, unfortunately, I don’t always have hours and hours! With the synthesisers, I find it is the listening that becomes more meditative. This is good training, and can be applied over to guitar playing too. Not that I had not been listening with the guitar, but that controlling a synth opens up a new approach to listening. Perhaps a more compositional listening. Using effects with guitar can also open up this dimension, where it becomes less a problem of harmony and melody and one of density, balance, and texture.

When improvising, I never have a result in mind. My aim is always to play something good; yet, having this intention is no guarantee that I will play something good. Something happens between me and the outcome, something inserts itself there. I dance with it, and around it, sometimes falling flat on my face. This is the enigma of playing.

from 15questions.net/interview/no-moore-about-improvisation/page-1/


This music is improvised and recorded at home during 2022-2023: Electric guitar and effects recorded live, no overdubs, a couple of edits. Some of my best electric solo playing to date.

Artists on my mind when I made this music: Maggi Payne, Pete Townshend, David Tudor, Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas, Bridget Hayden, Henry Kaiser, Steve Lacy, Francis Bacon, Pauline Oliveros, Milford Graves, Keith Rowe
Always on my mind when I pick up guitar: Derek Bailey, Robert Fripp, Jimi Hendrix

Everyone likes a ‘tribute’ these days. However, I make these references out of gratitude.

N O Moore February 2024