Hear Tashi Dorji's latest recorded guitar improvisation
October 2018
Tashi Dorji in The Wire 362. Photo by Mike Belleme
After a string of collaborations, guitarist Tashi Dorji is releasing a new solo album
Bhutan raised, North Carolina based freeform guitarist Tashi Dorji has teamed up with Arizona imprint Moone to release his latest album but a night that ends, as all nights end, when the sun rises. His most recent releases have seen him record with artists such as Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, Chicago based percussionist Tyler Damon, Oregon based composer and violist Eyvind Kang, Japanese artist Aki Onda, New York based multi-instrumentalist Che Chen, and others. Dorji answered a few questions for us over email.
How has your musical style changed since moving to the US? What has stayed the same?
Dramatically. I never played improvised music growing up... but now I would like to think that improvisation was always there not just as musical understanding but as something like a life itself you know...alive and sometimes disappearing. Ok so, with very little access to western music in Bhutan, coming to the US was completely mind blowing and new. Perhaps the fascination of a new culture coupled with dreary capitalist landscapes added to my early navigation into punk underground. Punk rock became a gateway to everything new and imaginative both musically and how I thought about my surroundings. For the longest period of time I was simply trying to navigate these new cultural terrain and my place in it and not really interested in playing at all. So to answer the question, yes [my] musical styles have changed and become volatile.
In which ways does the guitar work well in improvisational music?
It seems to work for me so far. I use both electric and acoustic so they both present varied sound palette. I suppose it depends on how you want to present the sound... it maybe can be limiting if your approach to playing is within the confines of traditional form. I use the instrument to catch my environment and sonic waves that are constantly juxtaposed or sometimes completely in a mess.
What are the themes of this album in particular?
Maybe simplicity.
Tashi Dorji was interviewed by James Toth in The Wire 362. Subscribers can access the full article via the online archive. But a night that ends, as all nights end, when the sun rises is available digitally and on cassette from 23 October via Moone.
Leave a comment