Btw: yesterday an awesome concert of Olaf Rupp, playing solo acoustic (classical) guitar at the DNK series (OT301, Amsterdam): playing very precisely with all the ‘noises’ that playing a nylonstring guitar involves (nails on strings, ‘bijgeluiden’ et cetera), almost as if overlaying different types of sound in a way that can be compared to what goes on in electronic / laptop music… Also Gjerstad & Olsen played, but Rupp, well ‘blew my mind’…
ariealt.net November 14, 2006

Danach jedoch ein sanfter Hammer: Olaf Rupp live, stets fantastisch. Der Berliner Gitarrist einmal mehr als Albeniz auf Speed: mit großartigen Flächen-Flageolets kitzelte er die Akustische sensibel impulsiv, filigran und energetisch. Unglaublicher Charakterkopf mit uroriginärem Stil, immer wieder ein Vergnügen!
JAZZTHETIK #192 Februar 2006

L´ EAU QUI DORT
Il Faut toujours se méfier de l´eau qui dort. Derrière le look austère du guitariste allemand Olaf Rupp, qui se produisait pour la première fois en France hier à la chapelle Saint-Jean, il y a un temperament fiévreux... Adepte de la guitare classique acoustique qu´il tient à la verticale à la manière d´un violoncelle, il a impressionné le public pas son jeu virtuose et foisonnant. Avec la constance d´un métronome, il caresse à vive allure et vigoureusement les cordes de son instrument tout en faisant courir sa main gauche sur le manche, déversant une densité des notes d´une régularité étonnante. Comme une coulée de lave qui embraserait les sentiers sinueux d´une pente abrubte, ce tapis sonore envahit la moindre anfractuosité. Il en extirpe encore une ligne mélodique par petites touches éparses qui peu à peu se détache du magma se frayant un chemain parfaitement dessiné. À d´autres moments, il entre dans des propositions apaisées d´une profonde sérénité, sans relâcher pur autant la tension. Accordant un soin particulier à faire vibrer parfaitement une corde pincée, préservant les silences qui suivent une harmonique. En quête de perfection, de sons purs, lumineux. Un concert comme un ouragan, vertignineux...
L´ALSACE, Mulhouse, 2004

Olaf Rupp's hour-long performance at NBI was a revealtory and hypnotising affair. Playing a nylon-string acoustic guitar he produced dense and overlapping sheets of sound and noise that were only occasionally interrupted by a few fragments of notes that might, under other circumstances, pass for melodies. Sounding completely fresh and without any electronic processing whatsoever he managed to give every laptop jockey in town a run for their money.
STRETCHER.ORG Ed Osborn

"Berlin based guitarist Olaf Rupp likens his improvisations to riddle pictures which, when first viewed, reflect only superficial abstraction. Looking beneath the surface and into the hidden structure below reveals the embedded picture. This analogy is further reinforced by his assertion that his music deals with tone grids that define underlying sound. The accuracy of this assertion is clear from the first note of Scree. Rupp, who is self taught, draws his influences from many sources: Derek Bailey's freeform, found sound approach, and Marc Ducret´s complex tone clusters and flamenco technique come instantly to mind. It would be wrong, however, to give the impression that Rupp's style is only a collection of borrowings. Using only a classical guitar with no additional sound manipulation (similar to British improviser Roger Smith), he hits the strings very hard and produces music of exquisite accuracy. He may be self-taught but this has not hindered his acquisition of prodigious technique and, like many untrained musicians, he finds no contradiction in eliding styles. Thus the collision of flamenco-style arpeggios with dense chord clusters and a ringing steel tone holds no fear of incompatibility for either Rupp or the listener.
Neither is he afraid to labour a point. On "Action Of Rain And Frost" Rupp builds a persistent drone out of a continuously strummed chord that gradually reveals the hidden sound world contained within. Overtones become audible, harmonic resonance takes on new depth, as different notes within the cord appear to vie for precedence. The strummed chord is gradually transformed into a rolling flamenco caress and new layers of strength within the chord are revealed. This is where Rupp's unique approach to guitar improvisation begins to reveal its huge potential.
He is also capable of a more measured elongation of time in his playing, opening the spaces inherent in his architectural tone grid. The application of classical discipline comes to the fore here only to be subverted by a Bailey-derived randomness of single, interconnected notes. The intensity to Rupp´s playing allows the listener to savour the whole sound of the plucked note from initial application of the finger, through the wholesome resonance of the string to the final decay of the vibration." John Cratchley
THE WIRE John Cratchley, 226 December 2002,

"Radikale Improvisationen auf der akustischen Gitarre."
DIE ZEIT 51/2002 Ulrich Stock

"German guitarist Rupp plays acoustic instruments exclusively on this solo CD, and initially, his work might bring to mind another underground favourite, Steffen Basho-Junghans. Indeed, common points of reference do exist. Basho-Junghans favors hypnotic, repetitive chords, loaded with overtones and harmonics. Rupp follows that formula on one piece ("#7"), where a single chord is struck rhythmically and repeatedly, creating a buzzing, amorphous cloud of overtones. But in general Scree dazzles with jagged runs of dissonant note clusters and chords, often suggesting a species of turbocharged, wayward flamenco and "outside" classical guitar, mixed with a some elements of traditional Chinese music (particularly for the pipa, an ancient four-stringed lute). Rupp played an electric Fender Stratocaster on his debut recording, Life Science, but his intensity on this CD clearly doesn't suffer as a result of unplugging. In fact, hearing all of this energy electrified might be way too much of a good thing.
"Scree" is defined as "a mass of debris comprising loose fragments of rock," and the twelve pieces on this recording do conjure up, in terms of notes, a great many small hard, inter-related objects with a dangerous latent energy. The swarming, smothering sound of Rupp's rippling arpeggios, lightning runs and staccato chords is perhaps symbolic of some inexorable force, e.g., a tumbling avalanche of musical scree, although the force is not always in motion, and the music sometimes slips into a more reflective mode. In fact, once Rupp's amazing tour de force digital dexterity has served its notice on the first several pieces, the silences between the notes gradually become more prominent, giving the listener a chance to take a breath and assimilate the ebb and flow of the music. Some later tracks actually invite a kind of contemplation, with the frequent use of microtones, harmonics and string damping giving some of the more subdued pieces an austere Zen Buddhist quality.All in all, Rupp offers up an exciting, challenging CD, highly musical in the broadest sense, and a must for anyone who likes to hear an acoustic guitar pushed to its physical and aesthetic limits." Bill Tilland,
BBC London, Bill Tilland, 2002

"Equally surprising to me was the solo guitar of OLAF RUPP. On LIFE SCIENCE (FMP 109), Rupp plays in a highly original style that has traces of Reichel, Hendrix, Flamenco, Bailey and Doran. A self-tought guitarist, Rupp´s technique on both acoustic and electric (a Strat, for those who care) is jawdropping and on all these improvisations (Bios/Flor/Nerf/ Ciel (post electro)/ Heat/ Viva/ Voce/ Path/ Rain/ How big is your Heart?/ Body/ Soil. 76:33. June November 1999, Berlin), he uses it tastefully, passionately, intelligentley. A typical piece has Rupp moving from ultra-slow melodic lines to fierce two-handed tapping and into bizzarre power chords ot flourishes. It is highly abstact and challenging music, but not at all uninviting (it´s free improv you could play for a metalheat, I guess). Whether on electric or acoustic, his playing is utterly absorbing as he pushes towards a new language for improvised Guitar. More please Mr. Rupp."
CADENCE (U.S.A.) Vol 26 No. 12 December 2000

Berlin guitarist Olaf Rupp wrestles a grungy electric and a meaty acoustic through a variety of stylistic approaches. Loose, stunted classical arpeggios, deadfinger dragging strums and hurricane runs along the neck all combine in what sounds like a dammaged take on folk blues. The atmosphere is dramatic but never overblown, with tight, raging note stabs giving way to pools of silent reflection without ever sounding self-conscious. It feels like a liberated performance: a slow, egoless drift downstream, perfectley realised and preserved in real time. David Keenan,
THE WIRE

Ein neuer Höhepunkt auf dem Gebiet des unbegleiteten Solos. (A new highlight in the field of unacompanied solo performance.)
BERLINER MORGENPOST

"One of the more convincing concerts was the performance of Olaf Rupp. He played his electric guitar upright on his lap like a bass. It is a wild and free music bringing forward unexpected sounds, which sometimes seem like a adaptation of Taylors clustertechnique to the guitar."
JAZZTHETIK 7/99 (translated

"An interesting new discovery was Olaf Rupp. Born in Saarland, now living in Berlin, he seems to be a classical trained guitar player and is able to draw an impressing variety of sounds from his Telecaster whithout electronic effects. Playing sophisticated left- and right hand techniques Rupp creates moving soundfloors in which you can discover many different layers. We shurely will hear more from him in the future."
NEUE ZÜRICHER ZEITUNG 1999 (translated)

"Rupp continues in his individual way these anti-attitudes that we know e.g. from Hans Reichel. Improvisation without fiddle-faddle and frills, no big gestures, presented to the ear in a seemingly ambitionless manner."
JAZZTHETIK 5/97 (translated)