EXCELLENT TRAVELER by NATE MERCEREAU

"I consider the music on this album in different ways — as environments, a forest or a city, or some type of new not yet created combination of those things. The album as a place to visit, look around, explore, and travel through …

It's also a type of diary, or a moving sonic photo album, representing Traveling Excellently, physically, emotionally, dimensionally. All of these recordings are made from my living collection of samples interpreted and played with my guitar. I use the guitar as a sampler and synth controller, allowing me to make anything my "instrument." I have a microphone in my set-up, and when I'm playing with a group, or in an environment, I point the mic at the band or sound source, and if something happens that I want to play, I record it, and drop it into the sampler. The sample maps across the fretboard, and I can play it at any pitch and speed, effectively making anything that makes sound, my instrument. All possible realities are available. I also explore further with guitar synthesizers, other samples of myself playing various acoustic instruments, and samples of environments like forests and cities. I think of it as a Worlds Within Worlds or Worlds Upon Worlds approach, one where anything is possible — live producing and mixing, a form of DJing Reality, immersively layered sonic landscapes, Time Music, Playing with Time ... This is also my version of a solo guitar album, where nearly everything is created by a guitar, except for a live trio section with Carlos and André in the middle of “Infinite Palaces of Possibility / Horse”. Some pieces are one-take solo performances (tracks 2, 4, 7, 10, 16), others are multiple solo performances edited together, with various levels of orchestration/arrangement/collaging (tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11-15, 17). The acoustic sound of my electric guitar is often present too -- I put a mic on it in order to show what is happening in that more traditional sense. It's interesting to have the reference of the acoustic sound of the guitar, with the expansive worlds of sound that it's making."

Credits
Nate Mercereau - Guitar
Carlos Niño - Toms, Shells and Cymbals on Infinite Palaces of Possibility / Horse
André 3000 - Flute and Vocoder on Infinite Palaces of Possibility / Horse
Produced, mixed, edited and arranged by Nate Mercereau.

Sampled Guests in order of appearance:
Luis Pérez Ixoneztli
Carlos Niño
André 3000
Surya Botofasina
Laraaji
Idris Ackamoor
Shabaka Hutchings
Kamasi Washington
Cavana Lee
V.C.R
Anaiah Rasheed Muhammad
Aaron Shaw
Andres Renteria
Dwight Trible