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I'm a guitarist and a composer, and also work as a journalist for music magazines around the world. I've created one acoustic guitar CD, May The Road Rise To Meet You (see tingen.org) and wrote a book on the electric music of Miles Davis, Miles Beyond (see miles-beyond.com). I'm working on a 2nd CD called Metamorphosis; you can listen to two rather rough and ready demos from this album: "Soft Landing" and the piano/string quartet track "Grace." The other tracks are from The Road.
During the 1990s I began practicing meditation and mindful living as taught by the Vietnamese Zen master, poet, and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh (see plumvillage.org). It changed my life and my approach to music, particularly to playing the acoustic the guitar. The resulting two albums, The Road and Metamorphosis predominantly consist of one man and one guitar, ie myself and my 1947 all-mahogany prototype Gibson J45. I did my best to capture the space and inner expanse of Zen, while making interesting music at the same time, so no sprawling New Age kitsch.
The legendary guitarist John McLaughlin commented on May The Road Rise To Meet You: "Tingen has discovered a new approach to music in general, and the guitar in particular." Very humbling words indeed... Other great guitarists, like Martin Taylor, Phil Manzanera, and Michael Brook (who did an electronic treatment on "Watching The Breath") were also lavish with their praise. In addition, Time Out magazine in London called me a "Zen Guitarist" because of the Zen inspiration for my guitar music, a tag that was hard to refuse :) These days I also play the electric guitar quite a bit again, equally trying to imbue it with the here-and-now spirit of Zen, albeit rather more loudly!
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"Tingen has discovered a new approach to music in general, and the guitar in particular. I am very impressed with the lucidity with which Tingen is able to communicate his concepts. Through a seemingly simple manner, and with only an acoustic guitar, Tingen is able to reveal new dimensions in music."
-John McLaughlin, composer and guitarist.
"Very powerful and deeply soulful guitar playing. Tingen had the good sense
to let the sound of the acoustic guitar speak for itself."
-Mitchell Froom, producer of Crowded House, Los Lobos, Suzanne Vega and Tom Waits.
"A good composition should be like beautiful architecture: you walk through it and keep discovering new things. May The Road Rise To Meet You is like that. As the album goes on, new doors keep opening."
- Hector Zazou, French composer who worked with Björk, David Sylvian, John Cale, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Harold Budd.
"I feel inspired by the way Paul Tingen has used the guitar to get across - communicate - his music. It's so refreshing to hear a guitarist who sees music as the most important part, not using his obvious mastery of the instrument to impress, but to tell a story."
- Martin Taylor, the UK's leading jazz guitarist.
"Highly enjoyable. One of those rare guitar albums that is about the music and not about guitar technique."
- Phil Manzanera, guitarist, producer and founding member of Roxy Music.
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