THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I consider the music on this album in different ways — as environments, a forest or a city, or some type of new not yet created combination of those things,” says Nate Mercereau. “The album as a place to visit, look around, explore, and travel through… It’s also a type of diary, or a moving sonic photo album, representing traveling excellently, physically, emotionally, dimensionally.
“All of these recordings are made from my living collection of samples, interpreted and played with my guitar. I use the guitar as a sampler and synth controller, allowing me to make anything my instrument. I have a microphone in my setup, and when I’m playing with a group, or in an environment, I point the mic at the band or sound source, and if something happens that I want to play, I record it, and drop it into the sampler. The sample maps across the fretboard, and I can play it at any pitch and speed, effectively making anything that makes sound, my instrument. All possible realities are available.
“I also explore further with guitar synthesizers, other samples of myself playing various acoustic instruments, and samples of environments like forests and cities. I think of it as a worlds-within-worlds or worlds-upon-worlds approach, one where anything is possible — live producing and mixing, a form of DJing reality, immersively layered sonic landscapes, time music, playing with time… This is also my version of a solo guitar album, where nearly everything is created by a guitar, except for a live trio section with Carlos and André in the middle of Infinite Palaces of Possibility / Horse.
“Some pieces are one-take solo performances, others are multiple solo performances edited together, with various levels of orchestration / arrangement / collaging. The acoustic sound of my electric guitar is often present too — I put a mic on it in order to show what is happening in that more traditional sense. It’s interesting to have the reference of the acoustic sound of the guitar, with the expansive worlds of sound that it’s making.
“The song titles begin to tell the story of how I consider this type of music creation. Everyone on this album is a collaborator and writer — this music would not have happened unless we participated in the initial moment of creation together. These are samples collected from my life — trips I’ve taken, moments with my family, concerts I’ve played, recording sessions I’ve attended, people I’ve had to my home studio, places I’ve traveled to and shared music in. A Massive Thank You to every sampled guest on this album for your openness to this process of making more music with our music.
“In addition to the musicians sampled, samples include the sounds and expressions of Manhattan, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Oakland, Amsterdam, Tujunga, Topanga, Los Angeles, Venice Beach, Benton, Mayer Arizona, Twentynine Palms, Köln, BART, wind, breathing, water, fire, traffic, crosswalks, guitar birds, birds, cymbals, shakers, gongs, flutes, toms, drum sets, tambourines, voices, bells, shells, chimes, saxophones, clarinets, keyboards, guitars, zithers, psaltery, clave, woodblocks, the hangers backstage at National Sawdust, concerts at home with Juniper, marimbas, xylophones, drum machines, bird calls, and more … Other locations where samples were gathered include The World Stage in Leimert Park, Nublu in Manhattan, SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, King Georg in Köln, The Watershed in Oakland, Different Fur in San Francisco, Mia and Jesse’s in Glendale, Earthstar Creation Center in Venice, various studios in Hollywood, Malibu, and Santa Monica, and my home studio in Tujunga.”
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Excellent Traveller is a guitar album, but not in a usual way. Everything you hear on the album has come through the guitar, played by Nate, but the sound source is a vast array of recordings that Nate made in live and studio sessions. This is a traditional approach with totally unique (nontraditinal) elements that speak to the infinite sonic and energetic, spiritual and creative potentials that Nate hears and lives.
“I feel like I, and we, contain the vastness of all infinite potential, and in that potential, my imagination and feelings about it go beyond words, and it’s all in the music!” Nate, charged like a sunray, continues, “My greatest inspirations in life and music come from feeling a sense of infinite possibility, because I do believe that’s what is available in life on Planet Earth and beyond. I focus on opening myself up to this freedom as much as I can, and it’s something I maintain awareness of and cultivate in all aspects of my life and creativity. Freedom is very important, I offer it to myself and to others around me. I feel very alive and tuned in when experiencing, hearing, seeing and doing things that remind me that anything can happen.”
Frequent Mercereau collaborator Carlos Niño thinks of Nate as a “very rare creative artist who is truly a multi-instrumentalist — put any instrument in front of him and he will make wondrous sounds — a composer, producer, so open to exploration.” An excellent traveller on the surface of Earth, throughout our human world, and within the vast internal depths of vision, code and eternal vibration, Mercereau keeps moving.
This exquisite album of spontaneous solo composition and nuanced improvisation features living legends Laraaji, Luis Pérez Ixoneztli and Idris Ackamoor, as well as Andre 3000, Niño and their close collaborator, keyboardist, Surya Botofasina. Nate’s young daughter Juniper is on the album. Sam Gendel, Kamasi Washington, Shabaka all intersect in Mercereau’s psychedelic quests and adventures as well.
Considering Nate Mercereau’s vast array of collaborators and projects over the years, from Sheila E., Ledisi, Goapele, Jennifer Hudson, Maya Rudolph, Raphael Saadiq, Leon Bridges, Ricky Reed, Lizzo, The Weeknd, Jay Z, No I.D., John Legend, Jon Batiste and all those mentioned above, the question of what threads tie it all together, what thoughts, what feelings.
To that, Nate answers: “Exploration, freedom, creativity, discovery, openness, searching, emotional depths, inner and outer and multi-dimensional worlds, immersive experience, intensity, fire, water, earth, curiosity, listening, infinite possibility… the threads that tie it all together come from me being a person living a life, and I’m moving through and in and around this life in every way I find resonant, in the process of exploration itself, and all that comes with it. There is always a sense of discovery, going further into emotional depths and possible realities. Going there and reporting back.
“The way it is presented and shared throughout my life is always different, because of course it is — I am a person who is growing and changing, finding myself and my environment in ever present fluid nowness, so my expressions and interests will be changing as I find new ways to engage with it. My albums are all the same in that they are all me, and they are different in that they are all me.”
