Amy Melissa Reed is a composer, guitarist, improviser and sound artist. Her interdisciplinary practice includes painting and drawing, voice, video, multi-channel audio installation, performing, and recording.
Amy recently returned from the Himalayas with Susie Ibarra’s NatGeo field team. They lead Ma Ensemble and are honored to be a part of several large ensembles; Thin Air Orchestra (Tony Passarell), OrcheSperry (Phillip Greenlief), Vinny Golia 70 & 80, SMF (Ross Hammond), and Susie Ibarra’s Multi-Ensemble Performance of “Four meditations on Impermanence” at PS21 Chatham, N.Y. They Co-produced the forthcoming film, Deep Listening: The story of Pauline Oliveros. Recently they released Cedar Smoke; recorded in Gothenburg, Sweden with Biggi Vinkeloe (Saxophone, Flute) and Peeter Uuskyla (Percussion). Their work has been presented at CRISAP’s Wild Energies: Live Materials; Unearthed: A Festival of listening and environment honoring Annea Lockwood. NowNet Arts International Conference, The Center For Deep Listening Premier Festival RPI Troy, NY, IONE’s Dream Festival, and Women and Roots Fellowship; West Sweden. A newly commissioned Multi - Channel Multi Speaker sound installation, Chókim bètana wéeye is currently on view at the CA State Park Train museum. They facilitate sound walks and listening adventures. In 2018 they founded MA SERIES ARTS.
'Recorded in the summer of 2014, Solo Guitar is a mere 13 minutes of Ms. Reed scraping, strumming, and rubbing strings. She makes use of extended techniques, found objects in particular, to evoke alternating brightness and darkness. Often, her style results in two related voices simultaneously jangling, or one sustained while the other speaks. Her tone is usually clean, but she turns up the distortion toward the end of this single track for a more aggressive, yet still thoughtful, finale.'
Avant Music News
'Amy Reed is a guitarist and painter from Sacramento, California, home to the Gold Lion Arts performance space where she recorded this evocative solo guitar piece. Like some of her paintings, in which the abstract is met with precise strokes of paint and large open spaces, her extended technique solo guitar work takes advantage of similar motifs. The short tape release sees Reed creating an expectant atmosphere, pulling out all sorts of sounds from her instrument, from long pendulous swings to fine crackling bursts of bristling notes.' Paul Acquaro
Free Jazz Blog