Keith Rowe

Kenneth Ansell, in his notes to the 1980 Amalgam Wipe out box set, indicated that, although Keith Rowe's first major engagements were with the Mike Westbrook Orchestra in the early 1960s he was increasingly at odds with the surroundings in which he found himself. At college Rowe had begun to translate the drawings of Paul Klee into guitar tablature and as his further explorations led him towards the perception of the instrument as predominantly a sound source, he found that his contributions 'became too radical for the jazz context.'   AMM was established in 1965 by Rowe, percussionist Eddie Prévost and saxophonist Lou Gare, also a member of the Westbrook Orchesra at the same time. The following year they were joined by bassist Lawrence Sheaff and, at Rowe's suggestion, Cornelius Cardew. Ansell quotes Rowe: 'AMM was able to provide the conditions in which I could supercede what I saw as the oppressive legacy that the 1960s guitar imposed on me as a player. AMM were involved in what we referred to as a "communal search for sound" and that enabled me to develop various preparations for the guitar and a fresh approach to the instrument'.   With a core of Prévost, Rowe, Gare and Cardew, and varying contributions from John Tilbury, Christopher Hobbs and Christian Wolff, AMM continued until a split in 1973, at which point Rowe continued his association with Cardew in the Scratch Orchestra and People's Liberation Music. Somewhat later he joined Trevor Watts in a version of Amalgam that produced two recordings, the previously mentioned Wipe out and Over the rainbow. In his own notes to the Wipe out (title) track, Keith Rowe wrote, 'A lot of folk and people's music uses a certain semitone shift between notes (for example, the bottom notes of Blackleg Miner) and all the guitar is based on this progression. The sound quality of the guitar work draws on punk/rock'n' roll music. I investigated the idea of working with simple, crude material and sources; if there is complexity it comes from the grammar and punctuation which are not those of the source material. I had in mind, although we never discussed it within the group, a subtitle for the piece: Wipe out (the bourgeoisie).' And, in the notes to Tribute to Mingus: 'I used an adapted guitar for this track on which the octave was divided over eight frets instead of twelve. Consequently, the guitar is concerned with exaggerated techniques (for instance, the effect of bending the strings is extreme, as are the leaps over the intervals). I swap to a regular guitar with the bridge theme. When the guitar approximates to a conventional guitar solo that sense of exaggeration is followed through by the use of parody. The solo employs the "box system of guitar improvisation" and the source is clichés found in Improvised rock guitar (Green Note Music Publications).'   Around 1976 the first moves in a rapprochement occurred between the members of AMM which resulted in Rowe and Prévost working together as a duo for a year - and recording in 1979, as AMM III, It had been an ordinary enough day in Pueblo, Colorado - until John Tilbury joined the group in 1980. This group, along with occasional groupings such asSupersession and solo performances (e.g. A dimension of perfectly ordinary reality and City music for electric guitar) remained the focus of Rowe's work for over a decade.   The late 1990s up to the present day has seen an extraordinary burst of creative activity from Rowe, maintaining the previous associations but expanding these considerably with, among others: MIMEO (Music in Movement Electronic Orchestra) and associations with Evan Parker; Jeffrey Morgan; Günter Müller and Taku Sugimoto; Burkhard Beins; andToshimaru Nakamura. The full list of collaborations that have been recorded can be seen below.   Keith Rowe has maintained his early interest in utilising painting as a stimulus, generation of ideas, and as score material for musical performance. In discussing composition with Trevor Taylor (1997), he said, 'the only time I compose is in response to projects and then mostly in a graphical format. This weekend (in Nickelsdorf with MIMEO) I performed some compositions based on Paul Klee paintings. My pieces involve a lot of rehearsal time and include a lot of discussion, guiding the performances, sorting out why they should be doing this and why not etc.... In the painting series such as the Pollock I would take individual drips out of the painting and isolate them, lay them on the page. Then I select and indicate the instrument and talk to the musicians about how they may approach that. A lot of talking and rehearsal, nearly 30 hours.' An example of a response to one of Rowe's Pollock series can be found by Zeitkratzer on the CD Sonx. Although he told Taylor at the time of that interview he no longer painted, he has since taken it up again as the many recent CD covers - e.g. Harsh, Weather sky and various AMM covers - testify.   Further information   Rouy, Gérard (1998). Keith Rowe, audacis musicae magistri. Improjazz, no. 42, (February), pp. 9-14. In French. Rowe, Keith (2002). Rainforest crunch: festival de l'eau. The Wire, no. 216, (February), pp. 24-27. Describes a trip to Africa to play with local musicians. Rowe, Keith (1997). Above and beyond. Resonance, vol. 5, no. 2. Keith Rowe describing his use of radio. Available from the LMC web site at http://www.l-m-c.org.uk/texts/rowe.html Taylor, Trevor (1997). Zero gravity: interview with Keith Rowe. Avant, no. 3, (Autumn). Warburton, Dan (2001). The Tao of Keith. The Wire, no. 206, (April), pp. 36-41.