Mike Tamburo
Mike Tamburo is a 21st century Renaissance man who has forged his way into the consciousness of the American underground music community.
For the past 13 years, Tamburo has been relentlessly releasing records (31 releases and counting) under different monikers and projects including Meisha, Arco Flute Foundation & various imprints under his own name. He has performed over 500 shows all over the United States, traveling to every nook and cranny, searching for some kind of an understanding of what America truly is. Though always considering himself a multi-instrumentalist, he gained fame and notoriety with his fingerstyle guitar playing and his idiosyncratic use of effects; only to swear himself off of the acoustic guitar, eventually setting it on fire and hurling it off of Pittsburgh’s 40th Street Bridge. His effects soon followed.
Tamburo is a man who continues to reinvent himself, recently finding his new musical passion in the hammered dulcimer; building upon his own unique compositional stylings, he has developed a voice for the instrument that is very much his own. He is greatly inspired by American folk and minimalist music traditions as well as Indian classical music, but often expands outward to include influences from avant-garde to noise to modern compositional music. A Tamburo performance is always a very transportive experience. Tamburo is also an artist, film maker, writer, instrument builder, curator of the Fantastic Voyagers Festivals, Kundalini Yoga and Pranayama devotee, and inner state researcher; exploring alpha and theta states, floatation tanks, ethnobotany, orgone energy, and ecstatic states of being. He also runs the New American Folk Hero label, which continues to release an eclectic roster of creative and experimental musics.
BEN REYNOLDS is an English solo steel string guitarist, songwriter and improviser.
In his solo instrumental works and songs he draws upon the vast well of musical inspiration native to the British Isles as well as that found across the Atlantic and beyond.
Ben’s 2008 solo guitar recording ‘Two Wings’ was released on Portland, Oregon label Strange Attractors Audio House and focuses upon sprawling, meditative improvisations and concludes with the track ‘Here Toucheth Blues’ which appeared on Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem compilation.
2009 sees the release of Ben’s second solo guitar full length ‘How Day Earnt Its Night’ on New York label Tompkins Square (release date 9th June). This new recording consolidates his interest in British and American folk guitar traditions in concise and intensely melodic pieces as well as longer, expressionist improvisations. The intricacies of British guitar luminaries such as Bert Jansch and Davy Graham are found alongside the stark grandeur of John Fahey’s ‘American primitive guitar’ stylings.
Ben has toured extensively as both a solo performer and collaborator, including a stint playing with Cleveland performer Baby Dee’s touring band. Ben has previously been an active participant in Phil Todd’s long running Ashtray Navigations project as well as one half of Motor Ghost with Alex Neilson. He is currently a member of Glasgow based songsters Trembling Bells whose debut album ‘Carbeth’ is to be released in April 2009 on London label Honest Jon’s.