Bali Archives · Steve Tibbetts

Things I Did (Press resources for “Life Of.”)

Press page with rough bio is here Things I Did 2009-16 1. Sent Messages With Foxes 2013 2. Curated a Playlist for ECM 2017 3. Had Brain Scanned for Science 2012 4. Gave a Transplant …

Life Of–Press page

Some Biographical Material Big Influences Dave Ray was a big influence, not so much because of his legendary guitar chops or his storied career in music, but because he kept the rent on my studio low. Dave Ray was my landlord. He died in 2002. A street close to my studio has been renamed Dave…

Natural Causes–ECM Bio

It has been eight years since Steve Tibbetts gave us the fiery electric guitar album “A Man About A Horse” (ECM 1814). Now he returns with a different kind of recording: an album of, primarily, acoustic sounds. The making of “Natural Causes” took place in a period when Tibbetts was reconsidering some fundamental aspects of his art and craft – in parallel with daily studies of Bach, Bartók, and music theory.

A Man About A Horse–ECM bio pt. 2

“When someone opened up a guitar case and pulled out a guitar they may as well have been pulling a sword out of a stone. The room was magnetized. This was not lost on me, the smallest and most sports-challenged kid in school.”

Music and Trance in Bali

After a good three hours in the blazing sun we saw the gates open and villagers in trance being led out to circumambulate the temple. I’ll never forget the look on one young Balinese woman’s face: an incredible mix of astonishment, grief and transcendence.

Å–Downbeat, August 1999

Steve, Turid, Knut, and Marc standing outside the church they recorded in.

“Å (just say “ah”) successfully joins the hardingfele, a.k.a. hardanger fiddle, with Tibbetts’ distinctive, often beautiful constructions.”

Å–Minneapolis Star-Tribune & Playboy

“repeating fiddle phrases evolve into fresh ideas, while Tibbetts’ guitar slithers off on sympathetic tangents, and gongs and other elements chip in their own wry commentary, creating an ebb and flow of stylish nuance like mist on the fjords”

Exploded View–Car Stereo Review 3/95

“Ever wish you could take a ride on the Space Shuttle? Here’s the alternative: Pick up Steve Tibbetts’ The Fall of Us All instead. It’ll transport you to places in the cosmos you never knew existed.”

The Fall of Us All–The Sensible Sound

“The Fall of Us All is a stunning recording, a whirling devilish dervish of a disk that alternatively assaults and seduces listeners with electric and acoustic energy.”

The Fall of Us All–Soundscapes

“A sense of looped transcendentalism is never far away in the first suite with its swooping guitar distortions, Anderson’s relentless and entirely appropriate percussion and the carefully mixed contributions from samples and the other musicians which creates Tibbetts’s unique kinetic sound sculptures.”