Duane's Select Instrumental Recordings

Here are various instrumental pieces that I've recorded. I have composed all but one of these and play essentially all instruments (electric and acoustic guitars, electric bass, acoustic bass viol, keyboards, percussion), unless otherwise noted. Track 15 was written by Mongo Santamaria and features Dave Nemek on drums, bass and piano. All other tracks are copyright of Duane Bowker. I put these songs in an order which I like but you can certainly listen to them in any order you prefer.

The photo at the top is an ancient one dating from my senior year in High School. My band and I were performing at a school dance.

  1. "Cold Hands, Warm Heart", composed and performed by Duane Bowker (duration 2:37). A guitar duet of nylon-string acoustic and Gibson ES-335 electric, played in the key of A-minor. I really like this piece. Final mix recorded December 13, 2014. I put together a video with my favorite photos from a 2017 hiking trip I took out in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and I used this song as the background music for that video. Here's the link for that video: https://youtu.be/tg6hVV9eEsM"/>.
  2. "The Subtle Equinox", composed and performed by Duane Bowker (duration 7:46). Instrumental duet with acoustic and electric guitars. This is possibly the best thing I've ever done musically. Final mix recorded March 20, 2015. I used this song as background for a video I made featuring a selection of waterfalls from local western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. The film is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07sSMJPW-Lw"/>.
  3. "Simple Jazz Groove in B", composed and performed by Duane Bowker (duration 2:29). Kind of a repetitive piece with me on bass and electric guitar. I recorded this one on January 17, 2022.
  4. "A-minor Improv", composed and performed by Duane Bowker (duration 2:49). This is a multi-track recording with all tracks played on my beloved Gibson ES-335. I recorded this on January 11, 2022.
  5. "So Happy To Be Here", composed and performed by Duane Bowker (duration 1:07). Drums are free-use audio samples.
  6. "Guitar Duet in A Minor", composed and performed by Duane Bowker (duration 8:45).
  7. "Garibaldi: Joy, Exertion, Bliss", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 6:29). Instrumental featuring electric guitar, acoustic and electric bass, djembe drums, electric piano and synth. This is in memory of my recent backpacking adventures in Garibaldi Provincial Park in British Columbia. It has three parts that I think of as representing joy, exertion and bliss.
  8. "Piece in D phrygian, w/ Doublebass", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 3:41).
  9. "Jazz In Db", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 0:48). Drums are free-use audio samples.
  10. "Joanna", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 2:26). Ain instrumental piece with acoustic guitar, electric guitars and bass, dedicated to my Mother who died too young.
  11. "Layered patterns in G minor", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 3:55).
  12. "Spanish Duet Improv", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 3:35).
  13. "Work In Progress", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 1:58). Drums are free-use audio samples.
  14. "Overlays", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 4:17). Meditative piece played on nylon string guitar, different parts overlaid. The NJ State Library chose this piece as background music for one of their promotional videos.
  15. "Dark Improv in A", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 3:19). Drums are free-use audio samples.
  16. "Dancing Mudhead", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 3:26). Drums are free-use audio samples.
  17. "Dave's Afro Blue", composed by Mongo Santamaria (duration 3:39). My friend Dave Nemec arranged the piece, and plays drums, bass and keyboard on it. I added the electric guitar and horn parts. The horn part was played on a MIDI-capable guitar controller.
  18. "Tirebiter", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 3:37). Drums are free-use audio samples.
  19. "Two Guitars and Bass in B", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 4:43).
  20. "Aquarium Cottage, June 2015", composed and performed by Duane Bowker (duration 1:16). A short and simple instrumental with nylon-string guitar, electric guitar and bass. Final mix recorded July 8, 2015.
  21. "Mess in B", composed by Duane Bowker (duration 1:48). Drums are free-use audio samples. This little improv simply demonstrates what happens to my playing if I get too much chocolate into my system.
  22. "Our Last Finest Moment", composed and performed by Duane Bowker (duration 3:58). Played on nylon-string acoustic guitar with a little bit of synthesizer pad layered over it. Final mix recorded December 5, 2014.
  23. "fog planet", Video with photos and music, all by Duane Bowker (duration 1:59). I wrote and recorded the background music in 2014 using a classic Oberheim Matrix-1000 analog synthesizer. The music reminded me of fog so I decided to use it in a video with a selection of my favorite photos featuring foggy landscapes. I've taken these photos over the last ten years or so. The video was produced and uploaded to YouTube on February 12, 2018.