Olaf Rupp | Germany

guitar

Olaf Rupp started at the age of twelve as an autodidact to play what might be called today Improvised Music. His way of holding the guitar in an upright position is inspired by chinese Pipa players. He refined some playing techniques like rasgueados, arpeggios and tremolos in such a way that they can be used for overtone and cluster effects to create new, "virtual" sounds. He sometimes describes his music as "analog granular synthesis" or "sonic pointillism" because the intrinsic colour of every note or a group or notes is more important than the melodic or harmonic burden we may or may not put on them. He played among others with Lol Coxhill, Michael Wertmüller, John Zorn, Joe Williamson, Tony Buck, Butch Morris and Paul Lovens. Four solo albums on FMP and GROB.