I consider the music on this album in different ways — as environments, a forest or a city, or some type of new not yet created combination of those things. The album as a place to visit, look around, explore, and travel through …



It's also a type of diary, or a moving sonic photo album, representing Traveling Excellently, physically, emotionally, dimensionally. All of these recordings are made from my living collection of samples interpreted and played with my guitar. I use the guitar as a sampler and synth controller, allowing me to make anything my "instrument." I have a microphone in my set-up, and when I'm playing with a group, or in an environment, I point the mic at the band or sound source, and if something happens that I want to play, I record it, and drop it into the sampler. The sample maps across the fretboard, and I can play it at any pitch and speed, effectively making anything that makes sound, my instrument. All possible realities are available. I also explore further with guitar synthesizers, other samples of myself playing various acoustic instruments, and samples of environments like forests and cities. I think of it as a Worlds Within Worlds or Worlds Upon Worlds approach, one where anything is possible — live producing and mixing, a form of DJing Reality, immersively layered sonic landscapes, Time Music, Playing with Time ... This is also my version of a solo guitar album, where nearly everything is created by a guitar, except for a live trio section with Carlos and André in the middle of “Infinite Palaces of Possibility / Horse”. Some pieces are one-take solo performances (tracks 2, 4, 7, 10, 16), others are multiple solo performances edited together, with various levels of orchestration/arrangement/collaging (tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11-15, 17). The acoustic sound of my electric guitar is often present too -- I put a mic on it in order to show what is happening in that more traditional sense. It's interesting to have the reference of the acoustic sound of the guitar, with the expansive worlds of sound that it's making.



The song titles begin to tell the story of how I consider this type of music creation. Everyone on this album is a collaborator and writer — this music would not have happened unless we participated in the initial moment of creation together. These are samples collected from my life -- trips I've taken, moments with my family, concerts I've played, recording sessions I've attended, people I've had to my home studio, places I've traveled to and shared music in. A Massive Thank You to every sampled guest on this album for your openness to this process of making more music with our music.



In addition to the musicians sampled, samples include the sounds and expressions of Manhattan, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Oakland, Amsterdam, Tujunga, Topanga, Los Angeles, Venice Beach, Benton, Mayer Arizona, Twentynine Palms, Köln, BART, wind, breathing, water, fire, traffic, crosswalks, guitar birds, birds, cymbals, shakers, gongs, flutes, toms, drum sets, tambourines, voices, bells, shells, chimes, saxophones, clarinets, keyboards, guitars, zithers, psaltery, clave, woodblocks, the hangers backstage at National Sawdust, concerts at home with Juniper, marimbas, xylophones, drum machines, bird calls, and more … Other Locations where samples were gathered include The World Stage in Leimert Park, Nublu in Manhattan, SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, King Georg in Köln, The Watershed in Oakland, Different Fur in San Francisco, Mia and Jesse’s in Glendale, Earthstar Creation Center in Venice, various studios in Hollywood, Malibu, and Santa Monica, and my home studio in Tujunga.



Excellent Traveler is — Ears As Eyes, Musical Mind Cinema, Exploratory Music with a Sense of Discovery, making music with the Highest Quality Listener In Mind, Walking Through The Forest, there's a swarm of bees, and a bird I've never heard before, Playing Life, Noticing, a Vibrant Painting flies through the night sky Carried by Egrets, Worlds Within Worlds, Worlds Upon Worlds, Framing, Time Music, Playing with Time, in and out of Focus, World Creation, Shredding on levels (in ways) once deemed "impossible", now thought of and felt as Now -- have All Ways Been Eternal, hi-fives all around (It Can Be Like This), From One Place To Another, Now We’re Here, Traveling (emotionally), Traveling (physically), Navigating Inner and Outer Worlds in all directions, All Possible Realities, Reality Accelerators, Electric as Acoustic and Acoustic as Electric, Preheating Your Creative Mind, Solo Trips, Visual Music, Playing Not Notes, Expanded Realities, 'Going There' and Reporting Back, A New Type of Solo Guitar Album, Expanding the range of what the guitar can do, unique energy and Pacing, getting as close as I can to sharing the unedited feeling of aliveness in all ways sonically, Understanding What I’m On The Planet For (this time), Searching, Finding Out/In, Epiphanic Score Music, (there are no limits)(redefine)(anything is possible), Sharp Turns, Tempos Implied with multiple overlaid + fluctuating/breathing, Body Tempo, “The School of Freedom All Ways”, Planetary Chord Beam Echoing Throughout The Universe, I’m In The Ocean, I’m on Top of the Mountain, riding and creating waves, Honoring Intuition Immediately, (being) the space listening from, Guitar Solos, Fantastic Thoughts, Lions, Time Decoration, Scene Shredding, This Is Happening Now, All 1 Thing …

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"I call him a Magician," André 3000

would say from stage every night of the

New Blue Sun Live Tour. "He plays Guitar,

but it almost never sounds like a Guitar . . ."

referring to Nate Mercereau's travel rig of Guitar,

Guitar Synth, Guitar Sampler, Pedalboard,

Laptop, aerophones, and percussion.

Nate is also set up to Sample what is happening

around him, including himself, at any moment.



Excellent Traveller is a Guitar album,

but not in a usual way. Everything you

hear on the album has come through the

Guitar, played by Nate, fingers on the Strings,

Soli even, but the sound source is a vast

array of recordings that Nate made in Live and Studio

Sessions with all of the featured artists named.

This is a traditional approach with totally unique

(nontraditinal) elements that speak to the infinite

sonic and energetic, spiritual and creative potentials

that Nate hears and lives.



"I feel like I, and we, contain the vastness

of all infinite potential, and in that potential,

my imagination and feelings about it go beyond words,

and it's all in the music!" Nate, charged like a sunray,

continues, "My greatest inspirations in life and music

come from feeling a sense of infinite possibility,

because I do believe that’s what is available in

Life on Planet Earth and Beyond. I focus on opening

myself up to this freedom as much as I can, and it’s

something I maintain awareness of and cultivate in

all aspects of my life and creativity. Freedom is very important,

I offer it to myself and to others around me. I feel very alive

and tuned in when experiencing, hearing, seeing

and doing things that remind me that anything can happen."



Frequent Mercereau collaborator Carlos Niño

thinks of Nate as a "very rare creative artist who is

truly a multi-instrumentalist - put any Instrument in

front of him and he will make wondrous sounds -

a Composer, Producer, so open to exploration."

An excellent traveller on the surface of Earth,

throughout our Human World, and within

the vast internal depths of Vision, code and

eternal vibration, Mercereau keeps moving . . .



This exquisite album of spontaneous solo

composition and nuanced improvisation features

Living Legends Laraaji, Luis Pérez Ixoneztli

and Idris Ackamoor, as well as 3000, Niño and their

close collaborator, keyboardist, Surya Botofasina.

Nate's (3 years young) Daughter Juniper is on the album.

Sam Gendel, Kamasi Washington, Shabaka,

(add the other names hear,)

all intersect in Mercereau's psychedelic

quests and adventures as well.



Considering Nate Mercereau's vast array of

collaborators and projects over the years,

from Sheila E., Ledisi, Goapele, Jennifer Hudson,

Maya Rudolph, Raphael Saadiq, Leon Bridges,

Ricky Reed, Lizzo, The Weeknd, Jay Z, No I.D.,

John Legend, Jon Batiste, and all those mentioned

above, the Question of what threads tie it all

together, what thoughts, what feelings . . .

To that, Nate answers:



"Exploration, Freedom, Creativity, Discovery,

Openness, Searching, Emotional Depths,

Inner and Outer and Multi Dimensional Worlds,

Immersive Experience, Intensity, Fire, Water, Earth,

Curiosity, Listening, Infinite Possibility . . .

the threads that tie it all together come from me

being a person living a life, and I’m moving through

and in and around this life in every way I find resonant,

in the process of exploration itself, and all that comes with it.

There is always a sense of discovery, going further into emotional depths and possible realities. “Going There” and reporting back.

The way it is presented and shared throughout my life is always different, because of course it is — I am a person who is growing

and changing, finding myself and my environment

in ever present fluid nowness, so my expressions

and interests will be changing as I find new ways

to engage with it. My albums are all the same

in that they are all me, and they are different

in that they are all me."


Travel on Nate, enjoy that flow, we're riding with you . . .


Written by Carlos Niño