Re: Paul Dresher / Was Re: essential loop recordings

[Richard Zvonar <zvonar@zvonar.com>]

At 8:01 AM -0400 6/27/03, ArsOcarina@aol.com wrote:

>My comment was not to say that he was influenced by these folks but
>that his music sort of sounded like this to me a little bit. These were
>the only other reference points I had . . . at the time. I hadn't heard
>a lot at the time.

I was probably responding more to my own ruminations about influence, 
since at by time I was living with Paul (1977-79) is was already 
familiar with his East Bay musical milieu. There was a lot of 
performance with tape delay at Mills and elsewhere, and there was a 
strong influence by Don Buchla and Allen Strange on the synthesizer 
side.


>Now that you mention Reich, I'd say sure! The piece also sounded a bit
>like Steven's "Electric Counterpoint"...My only exposure to
>Reich then was "Music for 18 Musicians" and my unsophisticated ear
>did not catch a connection.

Paul listened to a lot of Reich and a lot of his earlier music showed 
that. In 1978 Steve Reich produced a series of concerts in New York 
and Paul's music was featured.

>Nor was I very familiar with Riley at that time -- though I'd heard 
>a lot about "In C" i'd never heard the piece itself (I'm all too 
>embarrassed to admit).

I was lucky - a friend of mine who was the music director of WBCN in 
Boston played me "Rainbow in Curved Air" right when it came out. 
Riley was the biggest influence on a small group of us in Santa Cruz 
in 1975-77. We'd typically set up a pair of TEAC 4-track decks in the 
Time Lag Accumulator configuration and improvise what we called 
"pattern music." I don't recall hearing any Fripp-Eno until later on.

>Actually I saw Daniel Lentz on the same day as the Dresher concert.

Lentz is very important within the West Coast art music scene, but 
not so influential on the post-Fripp crowd.

>UCSB's "College of Creative Studies" and the Music Academy of the 
>West in Montecito had lots of interesting people flowing through 
>them continually.

Some interesting work in synthesis and spatial music is being done at 
UCSB. The Music Academy was a major step in my partner Pam's musical 
life - she went there right out of high school.
-- 

______________________________________________________________
Richard Zvonar, PhD
(818) 788-2202
http://www.zvonar.com
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