Conor Moore

Conor Moore is a 21-year-old Miami-based instrumental guitarist working within and around the tradition of American Primitivism. After years of playing guitar, studying jazz and drifting between bands and styles, Moore found solo acoustic guitar to be the first format that felt open-ended enough to work in. “I always felt like there was something missing,” he says of earlier projects, “but this was the first kind of music that made me want to create something of my own.”

Rather than treating American Primitivism as a fixed sound, Moore sees it as a starting point. “It’s more a way of thinking about composing music for solo acoustic guitar,” he says, “and drawing inspiration from an eclectic collection of influences.” His approach focuses on writing pieces that feel complete and self-contained, without leaning too heavily on genre markers.
Much of the music on Moore’s debut was recorded at a friend’s house with the process kept intentionally contained. “I think albums are pretty sacred things...I couldn’t really live with myself any longer not having a record out.” His debut single, Olustee,  is released on 7 March 2025, offering an early glimpse of the material.

Moore’s debut album, Chamber Music, is released on Hollow Gesture Records on 3 April 2025. Written and recorded when Moore was 20, the album brings together his first songs, which he describes as music that “could only have been made at this particular time,” carrying a sense of juvenilia "for better for worse".

The album’s influences surface in specific, personal ways. Moore chose to include an interpretation of 56, from Ali Farka Touré’s The Source, because it is one of his favourite solo guitar recordings of all time. “That whole record is a masterpiece, it rewired my brain and my whole approach to playing.”

The album includes a version of Sponger Money originally by Bahamian calypso singer George Symonette and he pairs it with Buck Dancer’s Choice, a song written by Sam McGee and made famous by John Fahey that segues naturally after the slower calypso rhythm.

Chamber Music is a confident and compelling debut, establishing Moore as an exciting new talent in contemporary solo guitar and marking the beginning of a distinct and promising artistic voice.

Read the Q&A Conor did for Hollow Gesture Records here