Unstrung

As a guitarist, I spend what seems like an inordinate amount of time changing strings. Unlike those found on a bowed string instrument, guitar strings are relatively brittle and need to be changed often. While spending countless hours going through the familiar ritual, I became interested in the sound world created through the act of clipping and removing strings from a guitar. These sounds were both alien and somehow instantly recognizable, the product of an instrument being manipulated in a way that is seldom seen in a performance setting. In part, this opposition is created by the dual nature of the act itself, being both destructive and violent in the removal of the strings, as well as promising renewed creation with the installation of new ones. “Unstrung” utilizes recordings of a steel string acoustic guitar to explore all manner of unexpected and peculiar sounds created through the process of changing strings.