Janet Feder is a

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

–based composer and guitarist. She is a classically trained guitar player best known for her work in the

prepared guitar A prepared guitar is a guitar that has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques. This practice is sometimes called tabletop guitar, because many prepared guitar ...

genre. In addition, Janet Feder is: a lecturer at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

; co-curator of MediaLive, an annual festival in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

; and an Artistic Associate of Square Product Theatre.

Biography

Solo projects include ''T H I S C L O S E'' (2015), ''Songs with Words'' (2012), '' Ironic Universe'', a CD & DVD featuring

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as a founding member of the English avant-rock group Henry ...

(AdHoc Records/USA 2006), and ''Speak Puppet'' (

Recommended Records Recommended Records (RēR) is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler with Nick Hobbs in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected musi ...

/UK 2001), as well as compilations for Zerx Records (Albuquerque, NM; 1999-07) and the compilation The $100 Guitar Project (Bridge Records, 2012). She also appears on Jane Rigler's ''Rarefactions'' (Neuma 2015) and Honey Barbara's ''Wave Grass'' (2015), in addition to ''156 Strings'' produced by

Henry Kaiser Henry John Kaiser (May 9, 1882 – August 24, 1967) was an American industrialist who became known for his shipbuilding and construction projects, then later for his involvement in fostering modern American health care. Prior to World War II, ...

for

Cuneiform Records Cuneiform Records is a record label in Silver Spring, Maryland. Founded in 1984, the label releases a mixture of musical styles, all with a Rock in Opposition aesthetic, including progressive jazz, jazz fusion, the Canterbury scene, and electron ...

(USA, 2002) and ''I Never Meta Guitar'' produced by

Elliott Sharp Elliott Sharp (born March 1, 1951) is an American contemporary classical music, contemporary classical composer, multi-instrumentalist, performer, author, and visual artist. A central figure in the Avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimenta ...

for

Clean Feed Records Clean Feed Records is a jazz record label founded in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2001. The label's roster includes Ray Anderson, Tim Berne, Carlos Bica, Anthony Braxton, Mark Dresser, Ellery Eskelin, Peter Evans, Scott Fields, Fight the Big Bull, C ...

(Portugal, 2010), both featuring guitar players from around the globe. In conjunction with Paul Fowler, Feder composed the film score ''Leavings'' (2014), plus the score and sound design for the Square Product Theatre adaptation of

Selah Saterstrom Selah Saterstrom is an American author, originally from the south. She is the author of five books: ''Rancher'' (Burrow Press, 2021), ''Ideal Suggestions: Essays in Divinatory Poetics'' (Essay Press, 2017), ''Slab'' (Coffee House Press, 2015), '' ...

's novel ''SLAB''. Feder was one of several contributors to Paul Riola's Bottesini Project, where her work was featured alongside

Nels Cline Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been a guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004. In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex, a percussionist. He has wor ...

, Keenan Wayne, CacheFlowe, Glenn Taylor, and Mark Harris on the 2009 album Naima's Grass Pajamas. The album began as "collective improvisations recorded live in the studio" which "were then later reconstructed." ''T H I S C L O S E'' (2015) and ''Songs With Words'' (2012) were both recorded live at Immersive Studios in Boulder, Colorado in DSD Pure on Gus Skinas' 32 channel Sonoma System and are currently available on both vinyl and SACD. There are no digital effects on either ''Songs With Words'' or ''T H I S C L O S E''. A reviewer noted that ''Songs With Words'' "explores the outer reaches of sonic possibility yet never loses the thread of melody and beauty." while ''T H I S C L O S E'' has been described as "Feder's most fully realised album...Unique and highly moving music" Previously the Chair of the Music Department at

Naropa University Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named after the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university ...

, Feder has performed or collaborated with

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist. He first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts, notably as a participant ...

Mike Keneally Michael Joseph Keneally (born December 20, 1961) is an American guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist and composer. Keneally leads his own band, and is also known for a stint with Frank Zappa and for extensive work as a session musician with a range ...

Bryan Beller Bryan Beller (born May 6, 1971) is an American bass guitarist known for his work with Joe Satriani, The Aristocrats, Dethklok, Mike Keneally, Steve Vai, James LaBrie of Dream Theater and Dweezil Zappa, as well as his four solo album relea ...

Amy Denio Amy Denio (born June 9, 1961) is a Seattle-based multi-instrumental composer of soundtracks for modern dance, film and theater, as well as a songwriter and music improviser. Her inspirations include world music, and is mainly known as a vocali ...

, Chris Cutler, Mike Johnson/

Thinking Plague Thinking Plague is an American avant-garde progressive rock group founded in 1982 by guitarist/composer Mike Johnson and bass guitarist/drummer Bob Drake. Based in Denver, Colorado, the band has been active off and on since 1982, taking on a ...

, Susie Asado, Nikmat Hatraktor, Paolo Angeli, Wu Fei, Thomas Dimuzzio, Tatsuya Nakatani,

Erin McKeown Erin McKeown (pronounced ) is an American multi-instrumentalist and folk-rock singer-songwriter. McKeown's music encompasses pop, swing, rock, folk, and electronic music, as well as several other genres. Music career They grew up in Frede ...

, Jane Rigler, Shoko Nagai, Satoshi Takeishi, James Sidlo, Pauline Oliveros and poet

Anne Waldman Anne Waldman (born April 2, 1945) is an American poet. Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the Outrider experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political acti ...

. Feder's solo work was featured in a June 2012 Tiny Desk Concert on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

. Feder is also currently half of Denver-based duo Cowhause with Colin Bricker.

Discography

Solo: *''icyimi'' (1994) *''Speak Puppet'' (2000) *''Songs With Words'' (2012) *''T H I S C L O S E'' (2015) With Paul Flowler: *''Leavings'' (2014) With

: *'' Ironic Universe'' (2006) With Various Artists *''I Never Meta Guitar'' (2010) *

$100 Guitar Project The $100 Guitar Project was started on October 20, 2010, when Nick Didkovsky and Chuck O'Meara bought a $100 electric guitar from Elderly Instruments. In 2 years and 30,000 miles of travel throughout the US and Europe, the guitar passed through t ...

(2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feder, Janet Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women guitarists Guitarists from Colorado Musicians from Denver 21st-century American women