Lee Ranaldo

Lee Ranaldo helped establish Sonic Youth as a founding member and has pursued an independent path that connects avant-garde experimentation with broader alternative rock circles. Working alongside ex-bandmate Thurston Moore, he pioneered fresh electric guitar techniques through unconventional tunings and a rhythmic, percussive attack while adding a hazy, psychedelic texture to Sonic Youth recordings such as "Eric's Trip." His solo output during the Sonic Youth era served as an outlet for inward-looking work, including the 1998 album Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson). He also pursued joint projects with other experimental figures, among them the 1998 release Clouds, part of multiple collaborations with percussionist William Hooker. After the group disbanded, Ranaldo folded more conventional songcraft into records such as 2012's Between the Times and the Tides and 2017's Electric Trim while offsetting those efforts with freer explorations like 2021's In Virus Times.

Born in 1956 in East Norwich, New York, Ranaldo studied at SUNY Binghamton, where he performed in the experimental punk group the Fluks, a name drawn from the Fluxus art movement. Early inspirations ranged from late-1960s psychedelic California acts including the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Hot Tuna to initial New York punk bands such as the Ramones, Television, and Talking Heads. Relocating to New York City in 1979, he made a short-lived attempt to revive the Fluks and then played with various ensembles, among them Rhys Chatham and Plus Instruments, the latter yielding a 1981 LP. Chatham introduced Ranaldo to composer Glenn Branca, whose avant-garde compositions featured electric guitar ensembles. After encountering Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, also participants in Branca's projects, the three formed Sonic Youth in 1981; Steve Shelley joined as permanent drummer in 1985 following several earlier percussionists.

Sonic Youth maintained a steady schedule of recording and touring throughout the 1980s. Ranaldo's tour journals supplied the basis for two published books, Road Movies and Jrnls80s, that chronicle those formative years. The band's sound evolved from the raw, no-wave character of 1983's Confusion Is Sex toward the tighter yet still exploratory style of 1987's Sister and the landmark 1988 album Daydream Nation, establishing Sonic Youth within the American underground. In 1987 Ranaldo issued his debut solo album, From Here to Infinity, on SST Records, then Sonic Youth's label; the original vinyl pressing incorporated locking grooves at the close of each side, while the second side consisted of unplayable engraved artwork by Savage Pencil.

By the early 1990s Sonic Youth had become respected figures in the emerging alternative scene and offered guidance to numerous younger acts, Nirvana among them. In that capacity Ranaldo produced albums for Babes in Toyland, You Am I, Deity Guns, and additional artists. He devoted greater attention to solo projects and external collaborations, releasing material that spanned EPs such as 1992's A Perfect Day and 1994's Broken Circle, plus archival collections including 1993's Scriptures of the Golden Eternity and 1995's East Jesus. That same year he joined jazz percussionist William Hooker for the pair of albums Envisioning and The Gift of Tongues, the latter also featuring Zeena Parkins; the sessions placed Hooker on drums and Ranaldo on altered guitars, synthesizers, and electronics while they alternated between reading and improvising poetry. Ranaldo additionally published the poetry-and-photography volume Bookstore with Leah Singer and edited the 1995 Lollapalooza Tour journal collection Online Diaries, which included entries from Moore, Beck, Stephen Malkmus of Pavement, Courtney Love, and others. Later in the decade he joined Moore, Loren Mazzacane Connors, and Jean-Marc Montera for 1997's MMMR, reunited with Hooker for the 1998 live album Clouds, and issued the 1999 travel account Moroccan Journal, illustrated with Singer's photographs. Two further 1998 releases, Dirty Windows and Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson), gathered earlier 1990s recordings.

Ranaldo sustained an active schedule of outside projects during the 2000s while Sonic Youth remained on hiatus. Early in the decade he recorded New York - Ystad with Moore, Shelley, and Mats Gustafsson and Bouquet with Christian Marclay; the live album Fuck Shit Up, documenting a performance alongside Moore and Marclay, also surfaced in 2000. Around the same period the improvisational ensemble Text of Light coalesced, its self-titled 2004 debut featuring Marclay, Hooker, Ulrich Krieger, Tim Barnes, and Alan Licht. That year Ranaldo released the books Lengths & Breaths and Road Movies. In 2005 he rejoined Hooker, Licht, and Marclay for Music for Stage and Screen, which contained excerpts from a score composed for Dania Saragovia's film Jealousy plus incidental music for plays by Gil Kofman and Michele Salimbeni. Additional Hooker collaborations yielded The Celestial Answer and Oasis of Whispers, the latter also involving Glen Hall. The 2006 album Four Guitars Live preserved a 2001 concert with Ranaldo, Moore, Nels Cline, and Carlos Giffoni.

Solo endeavors from this era further examined guitar possibilities. Ranaldo's Suspended Guitar installation, in which a guitar suspended from a rope produced feedback that could be shaped with a bow or by striking the body or strings, appeared in performance venues and museums across Europe and the United States. Other sound installations included the 2006 Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art commission Shibuya Displacement (a Soundwalk). His visual art received recognition through a 2007–2008 residency at Paris' CNEAI. Also in 2008 he issued the EP Countless Centuries Fled into the Distance Like So Many Storms, a collection of electric guitar variations that again incorporated etched artwork by Savage Pencil. Two custom guitar designs underscored his influence: the 18-string Moonlander constructed by Yuri Landman in 2007, followed by Fender's 2009 signature transparent blue Jazzmaster.

Ranaldo maintained a steady output of collaborative and solo work throughout the 2010s. He contributed to Marclay's Graffiti Composition, which also featured Elliott Sharp and Vernon Reid, and released the solo album Maelstrom from the Drift, supported by Necks drummer Tony Buck and bagpipes-and-guitar player David Watson. After Sonic Youth switched from DGC Records to Matador, Ranaldo signed with the label as a solo artist. The band entered hiatus in 2011, the same year he and Moore joined Montera for the guitar-duet collection Les Anges Du Péché. His Matador debut arrived in March 2012 with Between the Times and the Tides, a more direct and melodic set that included Licht, Cline, Shelley, and Jim O'Rourke. Later that year Ranaldo, Watson, and Buck debuted as Glacial Trio with On Jones Beach, and December brought the poetry volume How not to get played on the radio. For 2013's Last Night on Earth, Ranaldo assembled the Dust, comprising Licht, Shelley, and Tim Luntzel. While touring Europe, the group recorded acoustic sessions in Barcelona with producer Raül Refree that became Acoustic Dust, issued in October 2014 to coincide with another European tour. A 2015 Manhattan exhibition of his visual art and further touring preceded September 2017's Electric Trim, recorded in New York and Barcelona and featuring the Dust, Refree, Cline, and Sharon Van Etten, with lyrics by novelist Jonathan Lethem; the album appeared on Mute, a former Sonic Youth label. A solo acoustic performance captured during the supporting tour emerged in late 2018 as Electric Trim Live at Rough Trade East. In 2019 Ranaldo collaborated on an album with Jim Jarmusch, Marc Urselli, and Balazs Pandi, then rejoined Refree for their first duo release, Names of North End Women. Incorporating spoken word, found sounds, and additional experiments, the record surfaced on Mute in February 2020. That September he recorded a four-part instrumental acoustic piece at home, inspired by the temporal suspension induced by the COVID-19 pandemic; built from droning and ringing acoustic guitars alongside environmental sounds, In Virus Times appeared in November 2021.