Loren Connors
Location
- Brooklyn, NY
Website
Record Labels
Artist Biography
Loren Connors has improvised and composed original guitar music for over four decades. His music—which embraces the aesthetics of blues, Irish airs, blues-based rock and other genres while letting go of rigid forms—has been recorded on Family Vineyard, Northern Spy, Drag City, Table of the Elements, Recital, RoadCone and other labels.
Connors, who names abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko his most important influence, has performed with Thurston Moore, Keiji Haino, Jim O’Rourke, John Fahey, Alan Licht, Jandek, and Kim Gordon. Suzanne Langille has often appeared on Connors' recordings as vocalist, lyricist and arranger. Connors also on occasion performs with an avant blues band called Haunted House, together with Langille, guitarist Andrew Burnes and percussionist Neel Murgai.
In July 1979, Cadence Magazine noted that Connors, who had recently emerged in the scene, was "similar to others in the Advanced Guard of improvising guitarists in that he is trying to extend the boundaries of sound and pitch of acoustic guitar, but he is unique in the utilization of Blues in his work, one could almost say this is Avant Garde Blues. He's swimming in new waters and beginning to make his own environment."
In recent years, Connors has focused mostly on live recordings of extended blues abstractions, with occasional performances in a more avant blues rock vein from time to time through the Haunted House band and collaborations with other artists.
Connors, who names abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko his most important influence, has performed with Thurston Moore, Keiji Haino, Jim O’Rourke, John Fahey, Alan Licht, Jandek, and Kim Gordon. Suzanne Langille has often appeared on Connors' recordings as vocalist, lyricist and arranger. Connors also on occasion performs with an avant blues band called Haunted House, together with Langille, guitarist Andrew Burnes and percussionist Neel Murgai.
In July 1979, Cadence Magazine noted that Connors, who had recently emerged in the scene, was "similar to others in the Advanced Guard of improvising guitarists in that he is trying to extend the boundaries of sound and pitch of acoustic guitar, but he is unique in the utilization of Blues in his work, one could almost say this is Avant Garde Blues. He's swimming in new waters and beginning to make his own environment."
In recent years, Connors has focused mostly on live recordings of extended blues abstractions, with occasional performances in a more avant blues rock vein from time to time through the Haunted House band and collaborations with other artists.
Selected Press
[Connors] is an American original in much the same sense as John Fahey or Jandek, in that hes chosen a classically American form, in this case the blues, and in true pioneer spirit taken it off somewhere else, crossed it with other forms... and shaped it into a uniquely individual vision of the modern American myth... [Connors] has created a singularly expressive and unique musical vocabulary. In short, he still sounds like no one else.
David Keenan, The Wire
Loren MazzaCane Connors isn't a cult hero for no reason. His music is awe-inspiring... a one-person gentle tornado, Connors can get deep into human feelings with a single guitar.
Pop Matters