Reaching for the cosmos

(picture used without permission, sorry)

2016 is definitely the worst year, and my blog will soon be more about dead musicians than about guitars... Alto saxophonist Marco Eneidi was not David Bowie or Prince, and his death will not make more headlines than his life or music... But those who knew him will remember him with fondness and gratitude. 

Marco passed away yesterday after a lifetime dedicated to uncompromising  art. Though he performed with the greatest free jazz musicians in the US and Europe, and released or played on numerous records since the mid-80s, his reluctance to please had him struggle for survival all his life, and keep on at the age when artists are either successful or gave up - until the very end. 

I met him when I moved to Vienna where he has been living since 2004 and where he organised the The Neu New York/Vienna Institute of Improvised Music - a weekly improv session where touring musicians would meet Viennese improvisers for a common practice of free music. After years of playing solo when I was in Berlin, that's where I learned again sharing and improving myself at he contact of fellow improvisers.

I never saw Marco on stage, I only heard him in the Celeste Jazzkeller club, never further than 3 meters from me. His saxophone sounded like thunder, it was like concentrating the energy and anger of 10 men into one column of air. All his music was about how mastering a technic could free your creativity, and it was a precious inspiration for any musician who would listen to him. Playing with him was truly uplifting, challenging but not intimidating for he was a generous man and artist. Sometimes at the end of a session he would go to the piano and hammer it with the same energy - and you found it also in the spontaneous poetry he was posting on Facebook...

Marco was living in Mexico since last year, as he was expelled from Austria for not regularising his administrative situation. It's not as bad as what Austria currently does with Syrian refugees, but it shows how stupid ideology and bureaucracy can be - and loose valuable people to a country. A few weeks ago he was touring Europe and came to play at the improv session in Celeste but I failed to go - too tired, busy with the baby... Huge mistake, I will never play with him or hear him live ever again.

Thank you for everything,  Marco.

more sketches

You might have noticed that my posting has been scarce in the last months, but I have a very good reason for that (I always have a good reason, have I not?): since last December I am the proud father of a baby girl (sleeping in my arms as I write these words) and my priorities have shifted. But I'm coming back slowly to my guitar-based activities - concerts, projects, design... More instrument-based projects actually, since my synth collection increased and I've been practicing with them more than with guitars - it's easier to play keyboards/MIDI interface with a baby on your lap (I'm an adept of attachment parenting, but it's another story...) 

Sometimes it Snows in April

Back in the 20th century, Prince made me who I am by teaching me that all that matters is the music - there are no styles, no genre, no chapels, just the music. This is true for everything. Saw him in Paris on the Lovesexy tour - I suppose it was in 1988 -, and I remember everything of this epic concert 30 years later...  Tough year.

God is dead

"God is dead,' Nick said. 'They found his carcass in 2019. Floating in space near Alpha."

 Philip K. Dick, Our Friends from Frolix 8

When I was in grammar school  back in northern France in the late 1970s, there was a small theatre under the school cafeteria, where pupils could try themselves at standing on stage in front of an audience, and learn how to do something worth watching. Some other kids had negotiated with the school director the right to use the theatre as a chill-out space for lunch breaks and covered the walls with early metal bands posters...

I was part of the theatre kids - some of them actually ended up having big careers as directors or performers - but I never really understood anything about what was going on. I loved stage but I was never so much into words, and neither into pretending... But I must have been much more impressed by the Motörhead poster on the wall than by Bertolt Brecht (I think that we made some kind of Bertolt Brecht mash-up at some point) because that's what I remember most. A little bit like the most vivid memory of my first Motörhead concert is the one week long deafness that followed. 

Motörhead was the first time I was confronted to musical badassery (at the exception maybe of Stravinsky) and it's like it's been there ever since, the snarling mutant skull, hanging somewhere where one could catch a glimpse of it, as were audible once in a while the blasting drums and the bass riff of Overkill. It was as if for once power and violence would be on your side instead of being against you. Isn't it ironical that a tough motherfucker like Lemmy ended up as a fatherly figure, steadily radical when the 1968 generation turned into 1980s yuppies, 1990s health food consumers, 2000s pensioners? Listening to Lemmy and Motörhead was like being connected to history, the real one, the one that's worth living... 

Fucking hell, I think that I reached the age when all my childhood idols will start dying, one after the other... I have to play some loud music.

Daevid Allen has reunited with the Great Cosmic Mother

Today is a sad day, one of my music heroes, Mr Daevid Allen, just passed away. I've been listening to Gong all my life, and Angel's Egg was one of the first LPs I ever bought as a young teen - when it was badly out of fashion. I was always playing his music to my friends, even when everybody (including me) was only listening to punk, post-punk, industrial music and later techno or noise - and they always ended up loving it against all the odds. Now I play Gong to my child (whose name is the title of a Gong song - post-Allen Gong so he's not called Pothead Pixie nor Zero the Hero) and we dance to it… And lately - since I got me a wah pedal effect - when I play guitar with the Soft Power Ensemble of Vienna, I have reminiscences of Steve Hillage and try to just let go… (BTW Soft Machine was another band created by Daevid Allen).

Gong probably heavily influenced my later eclectic tastes in music, mixing rock, jazz, electronic music, trance, asian traditional music, sonic experimentations... - I also listened a lot to Daevid Allen's solo work with sounds cut-ups including William S. Burroughs' voice, and one of his sentences is haunting me since: 'you never existed at all'.  Few people are ever able to not take serious their own genius the way Daevid Allen did. You can easily overlook the poet and the composer and just remember him as a silly hippie clown, but maybe it's not bad this way… Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to see him on stage, even if I was living in Amsterdam on and off at the time of the Gong Unconvention. But I met him in his music and I'll meet him again and again, and spread his blessing.

Daevid Allen was one of the persons I wanted to thank for making my life better...

the end of Custom 77...

I was very sorry to learn a few days ago that French guitar company Custom 77  - one of the best new guitar companies in Europe to me - suddenly decided to stop their activities. Though in the last years they developed very interesting original models, reached little by little a worldwide distribution network and caught the attention of musicians (including Lee Ranaldo) and guitar lovers, they just can't manage to go on as no bank seems to find that an European electric guitar company is a sustainable business worth supporting. So they chose to call it quits rather than risking bankruptcy - we can just hope that this means that the two guys behind Custom 77 plan to create a new company someday, something they couldn't do if they had to pay debts for the rest of their lives… 

Custom 77 Roxy Raw Power

Those who followed my posts on the Guitar Blog may remember what I wrote about Custom 77's Roxy when it was released in 2011 - I really fell in love with the sexy minimal design of this guitar. I really didn't need a new guitar a the time, but in the last weeks I was hesitating between buying a G&L telecaster and a Roxy Raw Power - the solid body single P90 version of the Roxy (I need a single coil guitar for my new project). Well it seems that I hesitated too long, and I will never have it (they sell their stock for cheaper price right now but you have to go to their shop in Lyon, they won't send it to Austria)…

Pedal rig

This was my pedal rig for the last concert of Soft Power Ensemble of Vienna: from right to left (this is not the order in which they are plugged, it's more complicated!), an auto-wah by Z. Cat (a small company in Latvia that makes quite interesting combined effects pedals), a Sovtek Big Muff, a EHX Freeze, a Boss tremolo, a MXR Carbon Copy, a Hardwire Supernatural Ambient Reverb, my Montreal Assembly Wrong Side of Uranus bizarro-bit crusher +, with a Behringer expression pedal and a true bypass router pedal because it's a little bit noisy, a Noisemaker Effects Freakshow Fuzz that is also just noise in a can, my Inductor Guitars Mellifluous Pussy MP-1 harmonic percolator, a Pro Co Rat, a Danelectro Rocky Road faux-Leslie and a Danelectro Back Talk reverse delay.

I also got myself a Fender Champion 100 amp, as my 25-year old Peterson GS100 is currently out of order and requires a full rejuvenation - and I was afraid it would not be ready on time. Actually the Fender was not my first choice, I needed something cheap, simple and powerful - and I'm a pedal guy so solid state is good for me as I just use the clean channel - and after some research I set my choice on the Hiwatt Maxwatt G100 (it could have been Palmer but they don't have a 100 watts model) - just two channels and basic controls, I don't want more.

But no shops or online-shops in Austria, Germany and France had it in stock, until I found one on rock-gear.de and ordered it. They cashed my money and after two weeks they admitted that they don't and won't have it - and so far they didn't refund me… Not the most trustable people in the world if I may say… Then I just had 3 days left to get an amp and the Fender Champion was the only option - and the local shop where I got it only had the demo model left so I can consider myself lucky to have had it in time for the concert!

Anyway, finally I'm happy with it, even with the effects that I thought I would'nt use, because it sounds good at low level so it can be also my house practice amp, better than my Roland Cube. I think that I will get a tube preamp (from EHX) at some point to hear how it can complement it…

And of course I used it for last Friday's concert and that was a very good moment!

a Les Trem II for my Jaguar Special HH

I added a Duesenberg Les Trem II vibrato to my Jaguar Special HH  (my concert guitar) and I'm very happy with it! Never been a big whammy bar user, but lately I started to feel the need for it, either for improvised music (can't work with 10 new guitarists without picking new tricks here and there) or for some songs I keep composing even though I didn't record or perform any so far… 

A Jaguar usually comes with its trademark vibrato but the Special HH has a stock hardtail, with still enough room behind the bridge to produce chiming sounds… I was afraid that the Les Trem might damage the sound or at least make the guitar easily out of tune but it's not the case, I'm 100% content with it… I still plan to change the bridge for a Turnomatic roller one, now that I'm sure to keep the trem.

All you have to do is work...

new pedal board and stuff

Having acquired some new pedals lately I have to rethink my pedal board - and eventually I have to double it - I need to put about 15 pedals on it and keep it transportable, I don't know yet how I will do that...

The Hardwire Supernatural and the Empress Tape Delay really changed my sound and the way I play, I relay now on the sole Inductor Guitars MP-1 for drive/fuzz, I start to use regularly the Montreal Assembly Wrong Side of Uranus bitcrusher though I still don't really understand how it works, and as you can see I failed to re-house my Dan'o Rocky Road faux-Leslie, and though it's uneasy to use I do like its sound a lot...

I also just bought a channel switcher that allows me to organize all that and clean my sound, and I'm waiting for a new repeat percussion (a kit, gotta heat my soldering iron)... I'm getting ready for my new music project about which I'm quite excited.

Something else, David from Michigan having noticed that I changed the pickguard of my Paul Westerberg signature First Act and looking for an original 'ugly plaid one' for his, asked for mine, and I sent it to him (I still have to etch the alu one I made).

I take the opportunity to suggest to you to have a look at songsforslim.com and support former Replacements guitarist Slim  Dunlap, who suffered a stroke and lives in the glorious US of A, where real people cannot afford insurance.

The Owl programmable effect pedal

Last year I posted about Devi Ever's Console project - a cartridge-based analog effect platform funded by Kickstater (unfortunately it's not been released yet, it seems that it was more difficult to develop than planned). 

Here is another open-source / open hardware digital effect pedal, targeted at musicians as well as at developers: the Owl - and it's also looking for crowd funding... More or less you can program - or upload - any effect you can think of (preferably something that was never done before) in there!

It seems very interesting to me, though I know nothing about coding, but I'd bet that a completely new era is starting with these projects where musicians and technicians can closely collaborate to develop new sounds!

Obituary

My friend theremist and electronicist Laurent Dailleau passed away yesterday. He was a respected musician of the experimental music scene in France, and he will be deeply regretted. In the last months he was part of a touring project recreating on stage the studio version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (something Pink Floyd itself could never do) - he was of course in charge of the electronic sounds, all on old school analog machines. 

Laurent and I didn't meet in the flesh for many years - since I left France - but thanks to social networks we were still sharing our likes (and dislikes) about music, instruments and cooking. He was one of the few people who was savvy enough about guitars to have noticed that I was playing on an übercool ergonomic Ovation Breadwinner when everybody else in the experimental crowd thought that I was a fan of Kiss or something! He advised me when I started to use a theremin and I was quite influenced by his work in my last theremin performance. Last year he had invited me for a music retreat in his country house and I postponed going there until I have a perfect project for it - now it will never happen, sorry Laurent... 

solid body percussion guitar

This guy in France invented a cool percussion guitar system for solid body guitars, called Gperc - and he looks for crowd-funding to develop, build and sell this new instrument. Look at the video and listen to the music, it's pretty good, and if interested check http://fr.ulule.com/gperc (it's in French but you'll easily spot where to click to send money!)

Interlude

I didn't have time to post anything lately, so even if this picture is only remotely related to the object of this blog, it won't harm if I show it here until I have something else to post... 

I don't only sketch guitars, I also make drawings and illustrations for diverse papers and magazines, and I started a book for children with my partner writer Ines Birkhan. 

This lute and cute little animals drawing is just a try out - I need to figure out how to make drawings for children, and since I've been mostly drawing instruments lately, it felt good to  include one... 

New tools for a new project

Yes I know, another guitar related project (I do also have other kinds of projects going on lately, hence the scarce posting and the lack of concrete achievements in the field of guitar/pedal making)! This one will require new tools and the uncovering of old and unused skills... 

Oh such a mystery! To be unveiled soon!

Devi Ever's Console project

I'm supporting Devi Ever's Kickstarter Console project - I think it might interest some readers of this blog. 

You probably already know that Devi Ever produces extremely interesting fuzz boxes - I will acquire one very soon, well as soon as possible -, now she's busy with a cartridge based effect platform, available for one, two or three cartridge. A kind of anti-iStomp, its open-sourceness will allow anybody to conceive and release cartridges to be used on it - as much boutique makers (including Ohnono whose Chk Chk Boom I enjoy very much) as DIYers, and of course the first cartridges will be Devi's own very cool fuzz devices.

The project looks for funding with the help of Kickstarter and new backers are welcome, please go have a look and maybe join!

Meet Leo Lospennato

Yesterday I met up with Berlin-based Argentinian luthier Leo Lospennato, and it was a nice meeting. I first noticed Leo when I saw is book 'Electric Guitar & Bass Design' in Steward-MacDonald's catalogue, and I was very interested as it's quite an unique book! 

The dominant opinion about guitar design being "we already have Les Pauls, Telecasters and Stratocasters, why invent anything more?", it's refreshing to find someone who made the effort to gather and share knowledge about guitar design, and proposes creative tools to expand it. Leo kindly offered me the book and I will avidly read it in the coming days - and probably review it here.

I was happy to discover on Leo's website that 1) he's living and working in Berlin and 2) he's giving guitar-making workshops, something that I'm willing to do to reach another level. Not that I want to become a pro guitar maker myself, but I still would like to collaborate with a luthier or a company to have some of my guitars built, and I need to master more the subject to do that. I still have to decide if I will take his workshop in Berlin over the next few months or go to France to have a 10-day intensive one next summer with luthier Xavier Petit, but during our one hour meeting, Leo gave already interesting insights about guitar design and building - a.o. how to vectorise my sketches to rework them on my computer in scale one. 

Musima Eterna in Guitarz 2012 calendar

I told you already about the release of Guitarz 2012 calendar (that you can acquire here) featuring both my Doppelcaster (on the front page) and my good old Musima Eterna, about which I published a detailed post here. 

the Doppelcaster in the Guitarz calendar 2012

GL Wilson from the Guitar blog just released a guitars calendar for 2012, and he chose the Doppelcaster to put on the cover; you will also find my Musima Eterna (that I actually never showed on this blog now that I think of it) inside!