I’m originally from Northern Wisconsin. I currently live in Brooklyn NY.
My first instrument was piano. I started that at around the age of 5, and soon thereafter picked up the guitar and cello.
I’ve played with a large amount of groups in the past at varying levels of involvement. Some I’ve been a core member of, and others I’ve been brought in for a few gigs or recording sessions. If you really want a shopping list I can give it to you… but it gets long. I’ve written music for The Hilliard Ensemble, contributed music to The Sims 2, The Playboy Mansion Expansion pack, and scored the JFM Geosciences Geology Documentary. My work has been used in productions by modern dance choreographer Justina Gaddy, as well as the Labor Force Dance Collective. I’ve acted as consultant to new media artists at the Harvestworks Media Lab in Manhattan, and I’ve been a featured artist of the New England Arts and Culture Festival for two years.
I currently regularly play with Mappa Mundi (chamber pop), Man Bird Lion (dark art-rock), Battery (experimental ambient electro-acoustic), Ergo (modern jazz/experimental crossover), and intermittently with Slow to Wake (electronic/rock chamber group inspired by spaghetti westerns and indie rock)
I first heard this album as a preteen and it is responsible for making me aware of the importance of good orchestration. The walls of guitars with constantly shifting timbres made me realize that sound itself could hypothetically be used as the basis of a composition (something I would later discover had been done). Their songs also broke out of the verse-chorus-verse format (typical of radio friendly music), and allowed for extended instrumental excursions which often had more emotional impact on me than the parts with lyrics. To this day I find that the abstract nature of music is able to more succinctly convey messages than spoken or written word.
This electro-acoustic album features minimal piano compositions seemingly inspired by the work of Toru Takamitsu. Beautiful open piano chords are allowed to ring in space against the backdrop of repetitive glitchy beats crafted largely from sine waves and white noise. Despite the liberal use of open space and pseudo-silence, this album has an overt sense of groove. This reinforces a sentiment that Miles Davis is famous for popularizing…that music is more about the notes that aren’t played than the ones that are. Conceptually, this album made me aware of the dialogue inherent between acoustic and electronic elements inherent in electro-acoustic music. Whether instruments are being processed live, or if they play against a pre-recorded element, a lot of poetic intent can be conveyed by considering this relationship. In this case, the beautiful piano chords take on a somewhat saddened nostalgic edge when played against the cold relentless cycles of synthesized beats. The stark elements played against one another is what makes this album
This piece was my introduction to programmatic music. Though music inevitably tells a story, this was the first instrumental composition I had heard that told a specific narrative without having a film, play, dance, or opera attached to it. I liked the idea that the form of a piece of music could be determined by the story, and that references to actions, people, or events could be hidden in melodies, rhythms, and sounds. Though this revelation occurred to me via a symphonic work, I’ve found it relevant in all genres from folk to indie rock.
Though I was aware of her music before, I only really “discovered” her after finishing school. Her solo acoustic guitar work was refreshing after having spent the previous five years studying and over-intellectualizing sound, and her subsequent releases have continued to evolve in exciting ways. Her pieces are cerebral when they need to be, but never abandon the notion that music is music (as opposed to the idea that music is art). When I listen to her work I feel like my obligations to employ this or that compositional technique are erased from my mind, and that the silent instrument in my hands or blinking “record” button in front of me are unmapped landscapes waiting to be explored.
This is actually two pieces by different composers since both made me realize the same thing. These pieces broke down my rigid perception of genres and what ensembles are able or allowed to do. I heard both when I was heavily interested in rock, but both swayed me with their dense chords, driving rhythms, and aggressive tone. Though there were obvious differences, these compositions seemed to be written with the same sense of vigor that any of the rock songs I was into were. The instruments weren’t played through distortion pedals, but the dissonance in the harmonies created a similar feeling. Because of this, I stopped expecting to hear anything in particular before actually listening to a track. The term electronic music didn’t have to mean four to the floor dance beats, and a tuba, accordian, and clarinet didn’t necessarily mean polka. On the same note, it seemed to imply that any feeling can be created with any group of musicians or collection of sounds if the person writing the music can be clever enough.
Of course there are countless other albums and artists that have affected me in other ways. I’d need to mention My Bloody Valentine, Shalabi Effect, Autechre, Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, etc. That, however, will have to be a discussion for another time.