from
Fuente de la Abundancia,
released August 25, 2023
1 – Dennis Rea (born July 7, 1957) is an American guitarist, author, and music event organizer.
2 – He was a member of the electronic music group Earthstar in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He led the progressive rock quintet Moraine and worked with Jeff Greinke on Land. Other major holdings have included Flame Tree, Identity Crisis, Iron Kim Style, Savant, Stackpole, Tempered Steel, and Zhongyu.
3 – His activities in East Asia are detailed in his book Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan. He is co-organizer of the annual SeaProg festival and several concert series. For more than a decade he helped organize the Seattle Improvised Music Festival. His most recent work combines Central Asian music with elements of progressive rock, jazz, etc.
4 – He started playing the guitar at the age of nine or ten influenced by Mike Nesmith of The Monkees. King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King and the 2001 soundtrack: A Space Odyssey (music by György Ligeti) had a huge impact on him. Other influences include Soft Machine, Gentle Giant, Henry Cow, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, AACM, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Oregon, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Morton Subotnick. As a guitarist, his influences include John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Terje Rypdal, and Ralph Towner.
5 – He has collaborated with Hector Zazou, Bill Rieflin and Trey Gunn, Hawkwind co-founder Nik Turner, Chinese rock musician Cui Jian, drummer Han Bennink, Tuvan throat singers Albert Kuvezin and Saylik Ommun, and the experimental Mexican group Cabezas De Cera.
6 – Among his extensive discography we can mention his albums with the groups Moraine and Zhongyu on the MoonJune label, along with his most recent solo work, Giant Steppes (2021), on the same label.
7 –He will appear alongside Anthony Garone at the MoonJune Festival Toeldo 2023.