Born in Bhutan and based in Asheville, North Carolina since 2000, Tashi Dorji has been carving out a guitar lexicon entirely his own - shaped by a range of influences that began, as is often the case, with fingers digging into Metal, Punk, and Rock, and gradually expanded into free jazz and free improvisation, with a pivotal moment in the discovery of Derek Bailey’s music. Guided by a keen intuition, Dorji has emerged with a vast body of work dating back to 2009, featuring a series of improvisations for acoustic or electric guitar where melody coils around texture in an approach that is both fierce and lyrical. It’s a vision honed both solo and through collaborations with figures like Susie Ibarra and Michael Zerang, leaving its mark on releases through labels such as Drag City, Astral Spirits, and Palilalia.