About Me
Guitarist, composer, microtonalist, and lifelong New Englander in the experimental tradition of Charles Ives. All the music on this site was taken from an unreleased 1995 recording, Opus Contra Naturam. For more music, please check the following links:SONGS AVANTJAZZ MICROTONALOPTION MAGAZINE, MAY/JUNE '86 "...a superb guitarist and all around musician, sophisticated arrangements with talent to spare..."WCUW '87 MUSIC FAIR PROGRAM "...a young guitarist from Northboro, Dan is our pick to gain wide recognition with awesome technical ability and compositional sophistication..."KKUP CUPERTINO, CA. BEST OF '87 NEWSLETTER "...the second side of this tape may be the best I've heard all year, from soft acoustic and beautiful vocal, to incredible hot shit jazz..."JAZZ WORCESTER PROGRAM, OCTOBER '91 "...Rutland guitarist Dan Stearns recently finished second place in Guitar Player Magazine's 1991 Soundpage Competition, among a field of over 700 guitarist world-wide. His live shows are rare and stunning..."GAJOOB MAGAZINE, JUNE '92 "...innovative, kaleidoscopic..."METRONOME MAGAZINE, OCTOBER '92 "...a wild trip through a maze of sound..."NEW ENGLAND PERFORMER, NOVEMBER '92 "...Stearns is a composer with a truly original vision, "In a World Out of Tune" is a frenzied, industrialized, atonal guitar fest..."GUITAR FOR THE PRACTICING MUSICIAN, DECEMBER '92 "...Dan is one of the most original modern composers to have submitted a tape to this column. Hats off for an innovator..."WORCESTER MAGAZINE, APRIL '93 "...Dan Stearns, internationally recognized in Guitar Player and other publications, has finally put together a live band that approximates the dense, nightmarish music that has been issuing forth from Dan's tiny studio for years..."WORCESTER TELEGRAM AND GAZETTE, APRIL '93 "...Stearns crafts dense compositions that swerve into discordant meltdowns, then instantly snap into focus with impeccable musicianship, making each listen a little different from the last..."WORCESTER MAGAZINE, MAY '93 "...in the overcrowded world of guitar players, Stearns is recognized by his unique style, which cannot easily be pegged. His music is very cinematic, themes and variations conjure darting images like erratic plot points in a surrealistic movie..."GUITARIST NETWORK MAGAZINE, MAY '93 "...WARNING: this music may be too intense for some listeners. Dan's technique, compositions and originality put him on another musical plane..."WORCESTER MAGAZINE, FEBUARY '94 "...brutally difficult..."QNL NEWSLETTER, WINTER '94 "...a remarkable tape, playing as technically complex as any I've heard..."INTERNATIONAL GUITAR CLASSIFIED, WINTER '94 "...a model of uniqueness..."EXPERIENCE MUSIC CATALOG, WINTER '94 "...tomorrow's guitar today..."GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE, MAY '96 "...if Charles Ives played metal guitar..."WORCESTER MAGAZINE, OCTOBER '96 "...our Charles Ives..."WORCESTER MAGAZINE, MARCH '97 "...a dizzying cacophony..."METRONOME MAGAZINE, MAY '97 "...hears and sees things most people never catch..."ENTREVISTA CON ENRIQUE JARDINES (ABSOLUTE ZERO), LCDM No.163, APRIL '99 "...un gran compositor norteamericano que nos gusta mucho y que explora mucho en este terreno con guitarras sin trastes es un tal Dan Stearns..."BEEPSNORT, SEPTEMBER, 04 "...I'd like to mention the work of Daniel Stearns, in particular as a standout, original example of an Ivesian approach to rock music with his combinations of microtonal melodies and bizarre theatrical climaxes..."SONIC DEVIANT, MAY 05 "...clearly all but the most technically talented of us can conceive and, much less, accurately play such forms, but Dan can do this stuff blind-folded..."RENEWABLE MUSIC, APRIL 06 "...serious explorations of microtonal possibilities and, a New Englander himself, his connections to the music of Ives strike me as both honest and deep..."
