STATEMENT OF CONCEPT AND STYLE

An improvisational performance features JOHN BRUCE WALLACE exploring, exploding, and exhuming the avant geist. Seeking to redefine our notions of music through the use of negative melody and non-rhythmic structure, compositions are improvised extemporaneously on solo electric guitar without the use of tape, tape dubbing, computers or synthesizers. The idea is to utilize a few basic tones and then present relational possibilities inherent in those tones.

Mr. Wallace is interested in the textural aspects of the sounds, in the physical dimensioning of each note, of the geometric quality of the sound. He is also concerned with the timbre of every note and passage, and with the rhythmic structure of the relationship of each note to its neighbors within the musical neighborhood. His improvised compositions often incorporate sonorous multi-tonal qualities, dense, interwoven passages embellished with harmonic and micro-tonal sound statements, or silence further defined by irregular syntaxed rhythms and primitive beats. Influences as diverse as wind instrument breathing techniques, piano hand exercises, and woodwind and violin fingering styles are routinely incorporated into the standard fingering and theories behind the guitar.

Critics and fans have noted that he is able to produce complex musical riddles wherein his performances have displayed the qualities of multiple instrument arrangements, incorporating voicings that bring to mind horns, sax, chimes, cello and strings, and percussion as well as various guitar timbres.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY

[I]ncredibly interesting guitar improvisation, [i]f you are into guitar you will be into this from John Bruce Wallace. Incredibly talented. Susie Mudd, MARYLAND MUSICIAN, Baltimore, MD

Wallace is one of those rare exceptions. Charles S. Russell, EAR MAGAZINE, New York, NY

Sinuous solo guitar improvisations...rippling, resonant sound. Mark Jenkins, WASHINGTON CITY PAPER, Washington, DC

An aggressive, wailing guitar sound--astonishing and extremely individual--that one has never heard before. Grigory Valov, TIF, Arkhangel'sk, Russia

Wallace can very obviously play. [L]engthy meditations, often very spiked and twisted...often wild and unpredictable. Ken Egbert, OPTIONS, Santa Monica, CA

[I]ndividual sustain-drenched notes hang in the air, decaying naturally. Robert Iannapollo, CADENCE, Redwood, NY

Wallace interprets the improvised pieces with many harmonics, with inconsistent rhythms over fractured changes. Philippe Renaud, NOTES, Nantes, France

[H]is playing is a lot less predictable than that of many guitar warriors, and the best of it has a savage beauty that Eddie Van Halen couldn't achieve with six months of overdubs. Mark Jenkins, WASHINGTON CITY PAPER, Washington, DC

He invented a new technique of playing while continuously changing the pitch of his electric guitar. Svetlana Korel'skaya, ARKHANGEL'SK, Arkhangel'sk, Russia

[R]efreshing to hear music of such originality and quality for a change. Don Reimus, WOUI Radio, Chicago, IL

I really like the new material and it will be played for a long time (we still play "Plumbing" regularly). Rockin' Patrick Mokrane, Knight After Productions (CITR and CFRO Radio), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

[A] composer working to create a new voice for the electric guitar...creating a new approach to the instrument. Tim Brady, Opus Novus, Bradyworks, Codes d'Acces, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The music is clearly developed, powerful, and expressive. Rick Petrie, WITR Radio, Rochester, NY

Really great improvisation for guitar. Dwight Loop, Earwaves Radio Network, KSFR Radio, Santa Fe, NM

RECORDINGS

Electro Static Time Line 2000

Loud Noises In A Corner: Engagements On Urban Terrain 1994

John Bruce Wallace In Russia 1991

Plumbing the Depths of Reason 1990

Krank Cauls Disturb My Sleep 1988

SOUND FILES

Musical samples from Loud Noises In A Corner
"03101993-2-Evening" (265k MP2)
"02181993-2-Afternoon" (182k MP2)
"02181993-1-Afternoon" (Real Audio)

SAMPLES OF NEW MATERIALS CURRENTLY BEING RECORDED
"83198856" (Real Audio)
"83198949" (Real Audio)

(MP3) Sound Track #1 from Electro Static Time Line

SELECT PERFORMANCES

"Jazz Days '91," Arkhangel'sk Jazz Festival, Arkhangel'sk, Russia, 1991

"Jazz '91 Vilnius," Vilnius, Lithuania, 1991