Thomas Leeb – A One Man Acoustic Guitar Wrecking Crew
This is a super high quality video by CandyRat Records featuring Austrian guitarist Thomas Leeb with a song entitled “Fishbowl.”
Thomas Leeb who is no stranger to the music business, has been recording since he was seventeen. I wanted to find out more about this virtuoso guitarist and did so on Wiki…
“Thomas Leeb calls his music “the bastard child of acoustic guitar”, combining unusual techniques, ideas and harmonies with a frank tongue-in-cheek attitude. His friend, Irish guitarist Eric Roche, called him “my brother in strings” and was a major support for his development. Roche held Leeb in high regard: “I was his teacher for about five minutes and then I heard him play.” One of Leeb’s main musical influences is Michael Hedges.
Leeb follows his own path as guitarist and composer, displaying a very idiosyncratic and particular guitar style. Characteristic for this style are percussive elements generated by hitting the guitar body with the heel of his hand or single fingers while playing intricate fingerstyle patterns. On his Desert Pirate CD he uses a scratch-board, glued to the surface of his guitar. With it he adds rhythmic scratch sounds to some of his pieces which are surprisingly similar to typical DJ scratching sounds, despite their “acoustic” origin. Some of his pieces possess odd-meter measures and recall Eastern and Balkan music; much of his work is rhythmically complex and meticulously worked out.” read more
Thomas himself left a comment at YouTube:
“When I decided I wanted to be a professional guitar player, it would not have occurred to me in a million years that I would fly all over the world and play guitar for people. This tune is inspired by the strange mix of excitement and exhaustion that is life on tour – a bit of a time-travelling Fishbowl!” -TL link here
This song Fishbowl, which features complex guitar syncopation along with multiple hand percussion elements, has left this flatpicking guitarist (that would be me) floored… like, who needs a band?
Thomas Leeb is a one man acoustic guitar wrecking crew… and his new album which is available (CD & Tab) is available at http://www.candyrat.com
Author: Robert Harris
“Some of his pieces possess odd-meter measures and recall Eastern and Balkan music; much of his work is rhythmically complex and meticulously worked out.” – Yes, this is very interesting and relatively new field of fingerstyle. Although the guitarist Tim Sparks has worked in this field also. If I may, I would say that I am also made some compositions of the that sub-genre, and this approach for me has a special meaning because I live on the peripheral boundary of such a culture.
Thank you for your post..Thomas Leeb is an extraordinary player and guitar composer.
Hey Ivan, great to hear from you and, for sure, Thomas is incredible. I admit I don’t know much about this style but am looking forward digging up more.. Do you have any videos/recordings? thanks for stopping by. bob
Hi Bob, yes I have two video recordings in that style. Here are links:
http://youtu.be/pqxyKWtmSVQ
http://youtu.be/ov1l_K5nH5o
thanks, for your interest…
ivan
Hey Ivan, thank you! I’m gonna check out tonight – something to look forward to when I get home. bob