I’m a guitarist, composer, music producer, author, journalist, and a lot of my time gets taken up spending time with my two sons, who are now 15 and 12, and have become remarkably adept at making music (see here ). As a writer I currently work for Sound On Sound magazine, which is published in the UK, the US, and Brazil, and the leading music technology magazines in Germany, Poland, Japan, Australia, and Holland. See above for a YouTube interview with me conducted by producer Warren Huart…
I’m mostly self-taught on the guitar, but have studied guitar and music production at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. I moved to the UK in the late 80s, and obtained a music degree at the University of London in 1995.
I drew my inspiration for my first solo CD, May The Road Rise To Meet You (1997), from a variety of sources: folk, rock, ambient, jazz, classical music, flamenco, and the Zen practice of Thich Nhat Hanh. To promote the album I played in folk clubs and concert halls around the UK, including the South Bank in London. During this period Time Out magazine in London christened me ‘zen guitarist.’
During 1999-2001 I lived for part of the time near Los Angeles, and wrote a widely acclaimed book, on the electric music of Miles Davis, called Miles Beyond, The Electric Explorations of Miles Davis, 1967-1991, which was published by Billboard Books in May 2001.
I have studied mindfulness and Buddhist ethics with Zen-master Thich Nhat Hanh since 1990, ordained as a member of his core Order of Interbeing in 1997, and have taught mindfulness in the UK, the US, France and Greece, and founded two successful mindfulness practice groups: The Heart of London Sangha, in 1995, and the Northern Lights sangha in Northern Scotland in 2001.
I currently divide my time between living in France, near Bergerac in the Dordogne, and the UK, and am recording a 2nd CD, Metamorphosis. The great arranger and composer Paul Buckmaster, who worked Miles, Elton John, the Stones and Miles Davis, did one string arrangement.
One life-changing event that’s worth mentioning occurred in 1984, when I organised an open-air concert on the Leidseplein in Amsterdam called the Beethoven Marathon, featuring American composer/writer Gary Goldschneider playing all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas. The concert was attended by an estimated 12.000 people and attained legendary status in Holland. Many years later, in 2001 and 2002, I produced two of Goldschneider’s albums, Sinaia and Piano Pieces.
Tingen has discovered a new approach to music in general, and the guitar in particular. I am very impressed with the lucidity with which Tingen is able to communicate his concepts. Through a seemingly simple manner, and with only an acoustic guitar, Tingen is able to reveal new dimensions in music.”- John McLaughlin, guitarist and composer.
“May The Road Rise To Meet You uplifts with its qualities of stillness, acceptance, peace and celebration.” – David Sylvian, singer and song writer.
“A good composition should be like beautiful architecture: you walk through it and keep discovering new things. May The Road Rise To Meet You is like that. As the album goes on, new doors keep opening.” – Hector Zazou, French composer who worked with Björk, David Sylvian, John Cale, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Harold Budd.
“Paul Tingen really makes his guitar speak” – Michael Church, The Scotsman.