Steve Tibbetts

Steve Tibbetts (born 1954) is an American guitarist and composer. He views the recording studio as a tool for creating sounds. Most of his albums include percussionist Marc Anderson.

Style Tibbetts plays acoustic and electric guitar and exotic percussive instruments such as the kendang and kalimba. His music has been described as rock, jazz, ambient, experimental, and world music. while alternating between ambient soundscapes and electric distortion. He incorporates field recording, such as the footsteps in the track "Running" from Safe Journey and the chanting of Nepalese villagers on Big Map Idea. His albums often include percussion by Marc Anderson. He stated, "I go back and forth between the sampler and tape machine so much—looping, cutting, offsetting, and layering—that eventually I don't know where the sounds come from."

Discography Steve Tibbetts (Frammis, 1977) Yr (Frammis, 1980) Northern Song (ECM, 1982) Safe Journey (ECM, 1984) Exploded View (ECM, 1986) Big Map Idea (ECM, 1989) The Fall of Us All (ECM, 1994) Chö (Hannibal, 1997) with Chöying Drolma A Man About a Horse (ECM, 2002) Selwa (Six Degrees, 2004) with Chöying Drolma Natural Causes (ECM, 2010) Life Of (ECM, 2018) Hellbound Train - An Anthology (ECM, 2022) Close (ECM, 2025)