Ian C. Bouras / Events / Utica Brews

Utica Brews

Ian C. Bouras will be looping live at Utica Brews in Utica, NY.

Guitarist Ian C. Bouras, challenged by a rare and progressive neurological disease has charted a unique musical path, creating a genre unto its own that will inspire others who face similar obstacles. Bouras is reaching new fans and providing encouragement to those who may have seen their dreams seemingly washed away by disease or other disability.

While his condition is progressing slowly, Bouras is dealing with something called Ataxia, a relatively unknown neurological condition. Basically, all of his coordination is starting to deteriorate, and sadly that includes his ability to play guitar the way he used to. To counter this oncoming disability, he started to experiment with live looping and has developed a method of creating music which allows him to be a composer, musician, and audio engineer all at the same time.

As Bouras describes it, “I have attached a guitar synth to my guitar and play bass, piano, synth, guitar and more, live from the synth and then loop them to create a full band. I run everything through a delay pedal and a phase shifter. I have at least one other pedal and I manipulate the sounds live. I am not thrilled about having Ataxia, but I am happy to be forging my own path, and am the first person, that I know of, to be doing what I’m doing. People do live looping, but not like this.”