A couple of caveats:
- I create minimalist ambient/atmospheric music using highly processed guitars, basses and Chapman Stick. No synths are used. Yes, I know it sounds like I do.
People who enjoy "guitar music" in terms of demonstrations of shred-tastic playing technique featuring warm, classic bluesy tones will most likely be bored and disappointed by what they hear here, i.e. "Doood, with a Strat like that you should be getting some sweet SRV tones out of it, not this overly-processed, slow boring spacey crap!".
If this is you, then my apologies for having come to the wrong MySpace page, dear reader.
Having said all that - if I've not already scared you away, then here's a bit about me...thanks for sticking around! :-)
- Guitarist/Chapman Stickist/Bassist with Beta-Lactam Ring Records recording artists Christus & The Cosmonaughts (epic experimental/progressive/electronic/psychedelic rock),
and Ol Scratch Recorings artists The Prayer Capsule (instrumental electronic/space-rock).
Solo multi-instrumental artist (ambient/soundscape & experimental/progressive rock) on independent releases .
Guest musician (guitars, basses, Chapman Stick) with elmodic , Kriminal , Donkey T, The Wretch , Mystahr and others
The Gory Details...
The first albums I ever owned as a very young child were The Sandal's instrumental surf classic "Soundtrack to 'The Endless Summer'" and Tangerine Dream's "Rubycon"...which may explain a few things about my somewhat warped taste in music.
I started playing piano with formal training at age 7, guitar and bass at 15, synths at 16...and it's been a long, long ride ever since. In the past several years I've added Chapman Stick to my sonic arsonal as well.
I've played in numerous East Coast bands all through the 80's and 90's, and played on several indie-release albums (as keyboardist and bassist) during the same time period, including the debut album from Mariel . I eventually "retired" for the most part from playing live gigs around 2002 so as to devote more time to writing and recording (though I do still play out live occasionally for the fun of it).
I record as one half of Christus & The Cosmonaughts on guitars, Chapman Stick, basses, occasional synths and drum programming (with the amazing Scot Solida on the other half singing and playing everything else), with our new album "From Atop This Hill" now available on Beta-Lactam Ring Records .
Scot and I also have an instrumental electronic/space-rock recording side-project, The Prayer Capsule (and in case you were wondering: no, we're not a Christian rock band...).
Though technically not an "official band member", I also have been doing quite a bit of recording with the very cool German synth-pop band elmodic . I played the guitar solo on the single "Shallow Man" from their excellent 2005 debut album "Unsound Fantasy", and did all of the 6- and 12-string guitar work on their powerful 2008 follow-up album "Monoism" .
My own "solo" recording projects could be considered being in a prog-rock/industrial/ambient/experimental/electronic/goth-me tal/EBM/surf kind of style...or not.
Recently I've been recording quite a bit of ambient soundscape music recorded almost purely on "processed beyond recognition" guitar and Chapman Stick (which these days seems to have become something of a "trademark sound" for me...when all else fails, make it sound weird as hell!), with my first solo album release Dream Tower Blueprints released and now available at CDBaby.com as well as iTunes . Tracks from the album have been played on NPR's Star's End , Hearts Of Space , Progressive Soundscapes Radio , and Stillstream.Com .
I also write music software reviews for Grooves Magazine , as well as run the technical side of their website.
More information can be found at my website, http://www.ambientguitarist.com and the Christus & The Cosmonaughts MySpace site .
(Oh, and in case you were wondering: "Har" doesn't rhyme with "car" or "hair")