Artists
Album Info
Release Date: 2022Label: Cuneiform Records
Liner Notes:Recorded April 13-June 6, 2021, at Guilford Sound, Guilford, VT
Produced by Roger C. Miller and Dave Snyder
Engineered by Dave Snyder with Matt Hall.
Mastered by Ian Beabout at ShedSoundRecordings.
All music performed by Roger C. Miller:
Custom Stratocaster 6-string; three Rogue lap-steels (on legs), two prepared, one tuned unison E; multiple foot-pedals/sound-altering devices; Boomerang III Looper.
Miller uses numerous Source Audio devices.
All compositions by Roger C. Miller, Fun World Music, B.M.I.
From the Eight Dream Interpretations for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble press release ( http://cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/rogerclarkmiller.html ):
"Miller's active involvement with loops began in 1979 when he asked Martin Swope to apply live multi-tracked tape looping to his Mission of Burma song 'New Disco.' Time got bent inside-out, transformed. Who knows who was doing what, or even when they did it? Looping is pivotal to his current record.
"In the fall of 1983, after Mission of Burma folded the first time, he discovered the Electro-Harmonix 16-second Digital Delay which was an early innovative looping device. He applied this unit, along with guitar effects and prepared piano techniques, to his Yamaha CP-70 electric baby grand piano which had strings and electronic pick-ups. The concerts played in this set-up were solo, but with the variously layered loops sounded like an ensemble.
"When he began conceptualizing his 'Dream Interpretations for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble' in 2018, that previous set-up was the model. He now uses three lap-steel guitars on stands, two of them loaded with alligator clips or bolts, the other to a post-Glenn Branca full unison E. Using bass and tenor guitar strings, his previous prepared piano ideas fit into more portable guitars, resulting in percussive grooves, bass-lines, and similarities to the Chinese Ch'in. Looping technology has advanced considerably since 1983, and the new Boomerang III Looper presents much greater options for composing, layering, and altering sounds. Combined with new guitar stomp-boxes, many in stereo, the sound palette is enveloping.
"To contextualize his interest in these sounds, Miller turned to the Dream Interpretation technique he developed in 1975. By tightly following and translating a specific dream into music, a new type of structure was available: organic and personal, yet universal. Once he gave in to the essentially surrealistic/psychedelic nature of dreams, the type of guitar sounds he was interested in now had an appropriate context. Dream logic is not day-to-day logic, and the music follows this deeper unconscious thread.
"While the sounds produced are sometimes dizzying, they are always physical and made in real time. In performance, Miller sits in his cockpit, able to reach all four guitars and a plethora of pedals from one position. It requires intense concentration to play these compositions, but they could not have occurred any other way.
"The vocabulary for electric guitars now has a new front. And here it is:
'Eight Dream Interpretations for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble.'"