First Steps…Lee Ranaldo

Lee Ranaldo is best known for being the co-founder of Sonic Youth. Aside from the Sonic Youth main project and after the band dissipated in 2011, he actively records, performs, and collaborates with other artists. His main side projects are these awesome multimedia installations like “Drift,” an installation piece with improvised music, in collaboration with wife Leah Singer, as well as the band “Text of Light,” another improvisational project where the band performs primarily to Stan Brakhage films. Ranaldo also published several books and poetry pieces, his most recent books are Against Refusing [Water Row Press 2010] and How Not To Get Played On The Radio [Soundbarn 2011].   

I went to Sight Unseen in Brooklyn, a performance by Lee and his wife Leah Singer at ISSUE Project Room. The concept was really cool – Lee suspended a guitar from the ceiling in the performance space, which swung around the room overhead changing the dynamics of the sound with its movement.

The guitar was connected to a pedalboard with different effects. Leah played live video footage to correspond to the music. The sound from the guitar / pedalboard and the video were interacting. I was blown away by this physical and dynamic depiction of sound and image.

I was also able to snap a quick photo of Lee’s pedalboard (more on that in our upcoming blog.)

I caught up with Lee afterwards and with some photo samples in hand and a copy of the Dust & Grooves book, I pitched him the project. We had a nice quick chat and he got back to me via email shortly afterwards and was very impressed by the book I gave him and liked the Stompbox idea. He happily agreed to participate.

What an exciting start to the project!