Chuck Hammer
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Chuck Hammer | |
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Occupation | Guitarist · Composer |
Chuck Hammer is an American guitarist and soundtrack composer, known for textural guitar work with Lou Reed, David Bowie, and Guitarchitecture. As an artist, Hammer is best known for his Guitarchitecture recordings, though he is also widely regarded as a leading New York City based soundtrack composer, having scored approximately 300 documentary films. He is currently developing a series of improvisational textural guitar recordings.
He was born in New York City and attended University at Buffalo, studying classical guitar with Oswald Rantucci, jazz with Archie Shepp, and attended lectures presented by Karlheinz Stockhausen. As a guitarist Hammer was a central figure within the Lou Reed Band that hosted the June 1979 concerts at The Bottom Line in New York City that included Don Cherry.
Early work
Hammer toured extensively as a textural guitarist with Lou Reed from 1978 through 1980. During these concerts Hammer utilized new guitar technology, known as
In March 1980, Hammer recorded
Textural tracks, such as those on Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" and "Teenage Wildlife", exhibited a highly experimental multi-layered approach to recording and composing with the guitar. Hammer's recordings with David Bowie represent one of the most influential and genre defining approaches to textural guitar layering. They are regarded as having opened the door to the textural guitar movement that followed.
Guitarchitecture
Hammer's recorded work is broadly known as Guitarchitecture, a process and term which he developed in 1977. The underlying thought behind Guitarchitecture is to extend the sonic vocabulary of the guitar. Guitarchitecture involves widening the guitar's textural vocabulary by altering its temporal sustain characteristics and context. This approach often utilizes extended sustain, reshaped timbres, discreet vibrato techniques, textural event layering, and simply breaking down a chord to its basic elements and recording each element separately (as a modified guitar orchestra). The term Guitarchitecture applies to both Hammer's soundtracks in the digital film medium, and his recorded guitar work.
Hammer was accorded pioneer status by Rolling Stone, alongside an eclectic and select group, including Robert Fripp and Allan Holdsworth, having been attributed with leading a new era of development in the global guitar community, influencing instrument capabilities, form and functions in music.
He is currently developing a series of Guitarchitecture soundtracks.
In 2016 Hammer completed the recording and production of "Blind On Blind" with Billy Martin; Jamaaladeen Tacuma; and Jamie Saft. A 76-minute gapless album recorded over a three-year period that explores Hammer's concept of Recombinant Textural Layering.
Guitarchitecture recordings
- Glacial Guitars
- Cathedral Guitars (solo Acoustica 1)
- Avignon Crosses (solo Acoustica 2)
- Moonless Night
- Shelter Curve
- Arctic Circles
- Blind On Blind (Hammer–Martin–Tacuma–Saft)
- Path Heart Traverse
- Aetherial
- Djenne Djenno
Additional sessions and compilation discography
Appears on:
- Growing Up in Public, Lou Reed, (1980)
- Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), David Bowie, (1980), UK No. 1, US No. 12)
- Changestwobowie, David Bowie, (1981)
- The Singles Collection (David Bowie album), David Bowie, (1993)
- Best of Bowie, David Bowie, (2002)
- Rock and Roll Diary: 1967–1980 Lou Reed, (1980)
- City Lights Lou Reed, (1985)
- Someday, Arlo Guthrie, (1986)
- Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology, [box set], Lou Reed, (1992)
- Perfect Day, Lou Reed, (1999)
- Escape Artist, Garland Jeffreys, (1980), Epic
- Showstopper, gramavision
- Golden Years (1983) – album version
- Fame and Fashion (1984) – album version
- ChangesBowie (1990) – album version
- The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 (2007) – single edit
- The Collection, David Bowie (Teenage Wildlife), (2005)
- Sound + Vision (box set), David Bowie, (2003)
- The Platinum Collection (David Bowie album), David Bowie, (2005)
- Nothing Has Changed (2014) – single edit
- Bowie Legacy(2016) – single edit
- A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982), David Bowie, (2017)
Film and broadcast soundtracks
In 1983 Hammer began composing film soundtracks with a
In 1989 Hammer designed
- Trauma: Life in the E.R.
- The First 48
- Paramedics
- Science Times
- World Birth Day
- Police Force
- Maternity Ward
- Breaking News
- Women and the Badge
- Just Off The Coast
- Crazy Eights
- The Wreck
References
- Welch, Chris - David Bowie: We Could Be Heroes (Thunder's Mouth Press) ISBN 1-56025-209-X
- Bockris, Victor - Transformer: The Lou Reed Story (Simon & Schuster) ISBN 0-684-80366-6
- Prown, Pete and Newquest, HP - Legends of Rock Guitar (Hal Leonard) ISBN 0-7935-4042-9
- Boleyn, JR - Far Way to Even (Abernathy & Smyth) ISBN 1-4196-2930-1
- Clapton, Diana - Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground (Bobcat Books) ISBN 0-86276-056-9
- Heller, Jason - How 'Ashes To Ashes' Put The First Act Of David Bowie's Career To Rest, October 6, 2017 [1]