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Lee Ranaldo

Lee Ranaldo
Photo: Spotify

About

Lee Ranaldo is an American guitarist, composer and poet, best known as co-founder and member of New York noise-rock band Sonic Youth, active from 1981 to 2011. His playing is marked by an experimental approach to the guitar, alternative tunings and dense sonic textures. Alongside the band he has built a prolific solo career and collaborated with numerous avant-garde artists, also publishing poetry and artist books.

33
position in Rolling Stone Greatest Guitarists of All Time ranking
50+
number of released solo, band and collaborative recordings
9.6K
monthly listeners on Spotify

What's new

  • 2026-07

    Ranaldo released a revised version of the soundtrack to the documentary The System with previously unreleased compositions, coming on vinyl on October 2, 2026.

  • 2025-03

    With guitarist Michael Vallero, he released the album Early New York Silver, based on improvisations recorded in Brooklyn in 2022.

  • 2024-05

    Ranaldo received an honorary doctorate in music from Binghamton University, where he studied.

  • 2026-10

    As part of the tour, he will also perform in Dallas, Texas at the club The Wild Detectives.

Tracks

The Systemreworked soundtrack to a documentary about climate activists, vinyl 2026
Early New York Silverduo album with Michael Vallero, ambient-drone guitar improvisations, 2025
Electric Trimthird solo album in collaboration with Raül Refree, 2018
In Virus Timesinstrumental acoustic composition recorded during the pandemic, 2021
Churning of the Oceancollaborative quartet album with Jim Jarmusch, 2021

Recent shows

😴 Nothing scheduled with this artist in the near future.

Past · 1

Similar artists · 8

Sonic Youth Liars Deerhoof METZ Einstürzende Neubauten Mclusky John Zorn Lucrecia Dalt

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