{"title":"Ralph Towner","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eRalph Towner came to the guitar backwards. He trained as a classical pianist, studied composition at the University of Oregon, then went to Vienna to study classical guitar with Karl Scheit before settling in New York in the late 1960s. That training shows in everything he played: dense, contrapuntal voicings on the twelve string and nylon string guitar that sound like a pianist's idea of what a guitar could do, occasionally proven literally true on records where he overdubbed himself on both instruments. He co-founded Oregon in 1970 with Glen Moore, Paul McCandless and Collin Walcott, and the following year met ECM founder Manfred Eicher, beginning a relationship that ran for more than fifty years and produced over twenty albums as a leader. \"Diary\" (ECM, 1974), his first solo recording, introduced the guitar and piano overdub technique he'd return to throughout his career. \"Solstice\" (ECM, 1975), with Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber and Jon Christensen, is widely credited as the record that first defined what people mean by \"the ECM sound.\" Towner died in January 2026, leaving behind a catalogue that runs in parallel to Oregon's, distinct from it, and just as essential.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"ralph-towner-diary-1974-japanese-ecm-vinyl-lp","title":"Ralph Towner - Diary (1974 Japanese ECM Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eVinyl\u003c\/b\u003e: \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eVG+\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSleeve\u003c\/b\u003e:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eVG+\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eObi:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNone\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur grading system explained \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dpbg4u-d1.myshopify.com\/pages\/secondhand-grading-guide\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ehere\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003cbr\u003ePhoto is of the actual item.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRalph Towner - \u003cem\u003eDiary\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 1974 Japanese ECM Records (PA-7090, Trio Electronics)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnly two of these eight tracks are unaccompanied guitar solos. \"Entry In A Diary\" and \"Mon Enfant\" (the one traditional piece, arranged for classical guitar) are played without overdubs, and they're the most intimate moments on the album. Everything else uses layering. \"Dark Spirit\" opens with Towner's 12-string guitar over his own piano accompaniment, the two instruments occupying different halves of the stereo field. \"Images Unseen\" replaces the piano with gongs, creating a sound closer to gamelan than anything in jazz. \"Icarus,\" the piece that has followed Towner through his entire career (two lunar craters were named after it and \"Ghost Beads\" by the Apollo 15 astronauts), works as a 12-string and piano duo, building from a simple melodic figure into a passage of plucked harmonics against clusters of piano notes that sounds like two musicians playing at the same time rather than one man overdubbing. \"Ogden Road\" is the longest track at nearly eight minutes and uses the same guitar-piano format to stretch further. \"Erg\" turns the guitar into a percussion instrument, with Towner playing the body and strings rhythmically rather than melodically. \"The Silence Of A Candle\" closes the album with solo piano, no guitar at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTowner recorded this in April 1973 at ECM's studio, with Kurt Rapp and Martin Wieland engineering and Manfred Eicher producing. He had studied classical guitar in Vienna with Karl Scheit and was already recording with Oregon (whose \u003cem\u003eWinter Light\u003c\/em\u003e you'll also find in our catalogue), but \u003cem\u003eDiary\u003c\/em\u003e was the first time he had an album entirely to himself. ECM's own description cites Bill Evans as the primary jazz influence, alongside classical and Brazilian music. The overdubbing technique draws a comparison to Evans's \u003cem\u003eConversations With Myself\u003c\/em\u003e, though the instruments and aesthetic are completely different. This is the 1974 Japanese pressing on ECM PA-7090, from the Trio Jazz Mania series, manufactured by Trio Electronics, Inc., released the same year as the original German edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ECM Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43691756945467,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/IMG_7447.jpg?v=1782100660"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/ralph-towner.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}