The Room, by Keith Rowe

The Room

by Keith Rowe

supported by

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$11 USD or more
Full Digital Discography

126

releases

Get all 126 Erstwhile Records releases available on Bandcamp and save 60%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of sisbiosis, The Actress, Top, The Tower (The City), Revolution Shuffle, twice, Absence, Cat Guarding Geese, and 118 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

$637.60 USD or more (60% OFF)

The Room 38:57

credits

released June 7, 2007

Keith Rowe: guitar, electronics

recorded 2007

============================

“This was one of the first occasions on which I worked with Keith Rowe, who bore more or less the same relation to the electric guitar as David Tudor did to the piano (I put that in the past tense because by no stretch of the imagination could you now call them guitarist or pianist respectively).” - Cornelius Cardew, 1966.

More than forty years later, Keith Rowe is still adding to his remarkable legacy of sound and color. This latest release, The Room, marks the third full-length solo recording of his career, following A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality (1989) and Harsh (1999). Each of these prior recordings marked the end of a phase of Rowe's work just before he switched to a new guitar, whereas The Room is a continuation of his recent collaborative work, as captured on records like between, cloud, A View From The Window, November Quebec and the ErstLive 005 box. The Room is a very personal project for Rowe, and he struggled with its precise conception over the last few years. It's in part a tribute to two of his most important influences, Cardew and Mark Rothko, and the creation of a recording that did justice to his feelings about these two was a long journey. After many months of thought and numerous attempts to transfer the ideas in his head to a concert context, Rowe began in early 2007 to record at his home each day. He recorded dozens of hours before finally arriving at an end result that he could live with, and those results are here.

For Rowe, The Room represents an “emotional state made audible” as well as an attempt to Òreject virtuosityÓ, a philosophy which has been guiding all of his work over the past few years. Erstwhile mastering engineer Earl Howard did some crucial (and uncredited, due to the minimal text on the package) postproduction on Rowe's home recorded master, just minor tweaks on their own, but resulting in a decided overall improvement in the sound quality.

The Room is the first release on the new ErstSolo imprint, and is the first standalone digipak on Erstwhile, with the entire design consisting of two triptych Rothko-influenced Rowe paintings, one on the outside and one on the inside.

license

about

Erstwhile Records Jersey City, New Jersey

contact / help

Contact Erstwhile Records

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like The Room, you may also like:

Number Pieces
by John Cage / Apartment House

supported by 14 fans who also own “The Room”

perfectly calm - it sobers the mind Tim
go to album
Everywhere at the end of time
by The Caretaker

supported by 14 fans who also own “The Room”

Damn this album hits hard, really goes to show how much of a serious illness alzheimer’s/dementia is. Stage 3 is especially amazing yet horrifying. jayjayboi
go to album
Shutting Down Here
by Jim O'Rourke

supported by 13 fans who also own “The Room”

Everything in its right place. Or not. circadiansongs
go to album
Graffiti In Space
by Strategy

Portland beat maker Paul Dickow does right by dub techno under his Strategy moniker, bridging immersive listening with immediate impact. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 1, 2023
go to album
Me and the Glassbirds
by Heejin Jang

The Doom Trip label never misses, and the latest LP from the genius Heejin Jang is a trip into thrilling industrial terror. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 30, 2023
go to album
montage
by kay echo

An introspective record that fuses post-rock, shoegaze and ambient synth patches into a seamless array of shimmering soundscapes. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 26, 2023
go to album
Femenine
by Julius Eastman

supported by 12 fans who also own “The Room”

I listen to and write about music for a living, and this is some of the most gorgeous work I've ever heard. Marcus J. Moore
go to album