Later this year it will be 20 years since the sad passing of legendary guitarist Rainer Ptacek. Heralded by everyone from Robert Plant and Evan Dando to Howe Gelb and PJ Harvey, he was a journeyman, a played who complimented other artists but also had a distinctive beautiful sound himself. In the far from acrid watery early summer in the UK, his spacious performances wafted me away during a warm thunder storm the other night. I’d dug out his ‘Nocturnes’ album in need of some solace and turned to the internet to recap on his illustrious career. And there, from a few years back was a great piece from the great writer Fred Mills who’d tracked his work in several publications over many years.
Fred: “Someone once said that we rarely know what in life we’re looking for, but when we find it, we instinctively sense its rightness. For me, my arrival in the desert in the summer of ’92, was a coming home to a place I’d only known from books. Over time, I grew to understand that Rainer’s music was the heart and soul, the musical essence, and spiritual soundtrack to this sun-kissed place.”
Summed up in one paragraph but there’s a hefty amount more, you can find it here.
And marvel at someone who was so positive and did so much in his short 46 years.
