music
With a career spanning more than forty years, Bill Orcutt goes wherever his guitar takes him. He is undoubtedly one of the most influential names in experimental music and one of the most important instrumentalists of our time.
He emerged in the 1990s as co-founder of the seminal Harry Pussy, a band that combined the chaos of no wave and the intensity of hardcore with jazz improvisation reminiscent of Cecil Taylor. Precursors of the noise movement, they toured with Sonic Youth, Sebadoh, The Dead C, and Guided by Voices. With the end of the project in 1997, Orcutt disappeared for more than a decade until returning solo with A New Way To Pay Old Debts (2009).
Recognition was immediate. The album was voted by The Wire as the third best release of the year and, since then, praise and highlights have been pouring in from the specialized press. Pitchfork described him as “one of the great creative minds in the history of the guitar,” NPR stated that “no one plays guitar like him,” the New York Times highlighted him as “an instrumentalist who never does things by halves,” and The Wire considered him “impressive and unlike anything else imaginable.” He recently released Music for Four Guitars (2022), a work that has earned him comparisons to Steve Reich.
Whether he is playing his old Kay acoustic guitar or his Telecaster electric guitar, always with two strings missing, Bill Orcutt’s sound is unmistakable. With each recording and performance, he continues to invent a sound language built from raw tones, irregular minimalism, and tireless improvisation.
support portuguese republic – culture, youth and sports / general direction of the arts. rtcp – network of portuguese theaters and cinemas.
