Antarctica

antarctica
volume 2 number 11

fretless guitar has from the very beginning been an important part of my sonic arsenal. in fact, the first song big electric cat on my first solo record lone rhino featured fretless guitar*. in 1980 while touring Japan with talking heads I was given my first guitar synthesizer, the Roland GR-300. no one outside of Japan yet had one. it was only natural to convert a guitar to being a fretless guitar synth, which is something which was done for me by Roland in Japan in 1983. it has to have been the first one, as most players had yet to even see a GR-300.

when first experimenting with sounds and ideas which would become desire caught by the tail I recorded this piece which I named antarctica because it sounded so chilly. (I find it mildly amusing to listen to such cold music in the midst of a stifling august heat wave; aural air conditioning). parts of the song Z from desire caught by the tail begin to emerge during this piece which is a fine example of the status of early 80's guitar technology.

*that first fretless guitar was a little pale blue single pick-up Fender Musicmaster II. (I still have it). made fretless by my old buddy Seymour Duncan. we were friends long before either of us were known to the general public. of course, Seymour has gone on to be the world's premier pick-up designer and manufacturer. when I first knew him he was an outrageous guitarist in the Cincinnati music scene. man, he was great. he had a band called the orange noise. years later seymour would also "relic" my battered strat, the one seen on the cover of lone rhino. another story to be told.

fretless guitar synthesizer: adrian
engineer: rich denhart
recorded at Creative Audio in Urbana, Ill.
sometime late 1983
length: 4:17