PRESS
"An impressive cinematic portrait" 3SAT, "84 impressive minutes" KURIER, "An acoustic road movie" Ö1, "GUITAR DRIVER is narrated life story and a relaxed and visually stunning journey with Ritters music in the background." OÖ NACHRICHTEN, "A patient approach to an exceptional sound artist and his extraordinary music." FILMDIENST, "An idiosyncratic and successful music film." MUSIC AUSTRIA

SYNOPSYS
When asked how Karl Ritter came to do music, he says, "It was the other way round. The music came to me. It happened when I was about 3 or 4 years old."

Austrian 'extreme guitarist' Karl Ritter was never particularly interested in notated music. "Don't practise, but play" was his credo. He began to pluck at the steel strings when he was a child and later played in Kurt Ostbahn's "Chefpartie", using the pseudonym of Leopold Karasek. His comprehensive journey has led him across both tranquil and harsh landscapes through the use of resonating, electric and western guitars. Currently he is exploring a world of fantastical soundscapes that his guitars produce almost inadvertently: Vibrations, oscillations, feedback loops - all bizarre shapes of fancy.

The movie follows Karl Ritter's progress through everyday life and his gigs over the course of one year. Starting with his project "Weiße Wände", which he initiated together with Christian Reiner and Herbert Pirker and onto his gig at the ARS-Electronica in Linz and the performance of his composition "Soundritual" ( a cosmic journey of sound in the church of his hometown of Stockerau), which attracted Austria's most significant avant-garde musicians. The camera follows him to his gigs as a member of the band "Kurt Ostbahn und die Kombo", to a joint concert with Otto Lechner, opening an exhibition about their trip to Africa. A rehearsal with actress Anne Bennent for her poetic concert " Comment dire" and his annual birthday concert with Mamadou Diabate at the legendary Porgy and Bess are further highlights of this film.

Glimpses of Karl's private life, his biography, his words of wisdom combine to create a film in which listening and watching correlate, dominated by impressive acoustic passages and stunning visuals, showing Karl and his native turf through every season.