A small jam dedicated to the master. Rest in peace master Towner.
In Memoriam: Ralph Towner, 1940–2026
Ralph Towner at the ECM 40 Year Festival , Mannheim, October 2009.
Photograph by Carlos Ibáñez © CIB-2009
Ralph Towner, composer, pianist, guitar master, left this world today. For me personally, no words can describe the magnitude of this loss. Towner has been the greatest influence on my musical life, an endless source of wonder, inspiration and joy.
Rest in peace master Towner.
Gatekeepers
The gatekeepers of the top scientific journals are people who themselves failed to publish in those journals when they were in academia. Had they been able to do so, they would today be authors, not professional editors. Could it be that the best science produced in the world today is being judged by the worst scientists? If true, that would be very unsettling.
It is quite doubtful that anyone would start graduate school or postdoctoral training with the idea in mind to become a journal editor. The vast majority of graduates initiating postdoctoral studies do so with an intent to become principal investigators. Something happens along the way. Disenchantment with an active career in science? Too few positions available? Harsh competition? Family choices? Perhaps all of the above.
Suhr telecatster
A telecaster from Suhr came into our hands. Black and gold. Maple neck and fingerboard. Low action, smooth playability, wonderful tele tones.
Listen to the new Suhr telecaster in action in the latest track released for the Chromatographies project, the beautiful “ASIA” by Paul Motian:
Chromatographies: The Singles Collection
“The Singles Collection” is a compilation album featuring a selection of tracks from the first 4 volumes of Chromatographies.
Chromatographies is the jazz and ambient guitar project of Carlos Ibanez. The recordings consist of solo guitar performances that alternate improvised ambient guitar meditations with jazz guitar pieces.
Tracks featured in this collection:
Synaptic Wisdom
“Synaptic Wisdom”, the latest track in the Chromatographies project, is an ambient guitar meditation to bring focus on the inner workings of our synapses. Totally improvised on the Casimi C5S baritone acoustic guitar tuned to open D, it is meant as a background to meditation and introspection.
Light, water, time…
The interplay between light, water and time can give extraordinary results in slow-shutter photography, a technique in which long(ish) exposures (1/15 – 1 sec) combine with various camera movements to yield magical streaks of light reflections on a surreal background. The covers and inlay photography of the four albums of my ambient and jazz guitar music project “Chromatographies” used this technique to turn familiar land and cityscapes into abstract paintings of movement, light and color.
The gallery above shows the photographs used for the four covers each followed by an (approximately) corresponding image taken with a normal shutter speed and no camera movement. Click on each picture for an enlarged image and try to guess where they were taken. Read further below for the spoilers.
Pedalboard update v5
The pedalboard v5 in use since June 2023 introduced many changes from the previous iteration.
STIAS Fellow – Sep/Oct 2024
My 6th residence at the Stellenbosch Institute For Advanced Study (STIAS), and the 3rd of my Permanent Fellowship, has begun. My project here will be a continuation of my first residence in 2015 “New approaches to anti-obesity therapeutics”.
During my first 2015 residence, I presented some of the approaches followed by my laboratory to investigate this problem, based on studies of the ALK7 protein, a highly abundant receptor molecule in rodent and human adipocytes that is a key regulator of fat metabolism and plasticity. Major advances have taken place in the past 9 years in the field as a whole, the best known of these being the development and clinical application of GLP-1 agonists.
IBANEZ MOLINER WINES now has its own website
Catch up with the latest news about our wines at wines.carlosibanez.se.