Alan Licht
Encyclopedia
Alan Licht is an American guitarist
and composer
, whose work combines elements of pop
, noise
, free jazz
and minimalism
. He is also a writer and journalist.
in 1968. His earliest musical influences, in the 1970s, were mainstream rock bands like the Bee Gees
and Wings
—he remarks in an interview with Paris Transatlantic magazine that 'What made me want to play guitar was that painting of Wings in concert in the gatefold of Wings Over America. It looked so exciting... I wanted to be part of it.' Later, in school, he listened to punk
and no wave
bands like Mission of Burma
, Hüsker Dü
and Sonic Youth
. However, his musical trajectory was set when his guitar teacher gave him a copy of Steve Reich
's Music for 18 Musicians, which would lead to his discovery of other minimalist music. Licht majored in Film Studies at Vassar College
in New York
. Since the 1980s, he has worked and recorded with the bands Lovechild
, Run On and The Pacific Ocean
and with other avant-garde
musicians including Jim O'Rourke
, Rudolph Grey
, and Loren Mazzacane Connors
. He has also recorded several solo albums. Alan participated as drummer 42 in the Boredoms 77 Boadrum
performance which occurred on July 7th, 2007 at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park
in Brooklyn
, New York
.
), to pure pop music.
with The Blue Humans
with Jandek
with Loren Mazzacane Connors
with The Pacific Ocean
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, whose work combines elements of pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, noise
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
, free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
and minimalism
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....
. He is also a writer and journalist.
Biography
Licht was born in New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
in 1968. His earliest musical influences, in the 1970s, were mainstream rock bands like the Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
and Wings
Wings (band)
Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....
—he remarks in an interview with Paris Transatlantic magazine that 'What made me want to play guitar was that painting of Wings in concert in the gatefold of Wings Over America. It looked so exciting... I wanted to be part of it.' Later, in school, he listened to punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
bands like Mission of Burma
Mission of Burma
Mission of Burma is an American post-punk band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1979. The band was formed by Roger Miller , Clint Conley , Peter Prescott and Martin Swope...
, Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart....
and Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
. However, his musical trajectory was set when his guitar teacher gave him a copy of Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
's Music for 18 Musicians, which would lead to his discovery of other minimalist music. Licht majored in Film Studies at Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Since the 1980s, he has worked and recorded with the bands Lovechild
Lovechild (band)
Lovechild are a rock / indie band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They first rose to prominence in 2003 with their first two singles "Hope You Have a Lovely Day", and "The Siren"...
, Run On and The Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean (band)
The Pacific Ocean was an American indie rock band formed in 1996 and based in New York City.Edward Baluyut had left Versus in 1996 due to work and family commitments and had played drums for Connie Lovatt's band Containe that year. Shortly afterward, Connie and Edward formed The Pacific Ocean...
and with other avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
musicians including Jim O'Rourke
Jim O'Rourke (musician)
Jim O'Rourke is an Irish-American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene...
, Rudolph Grey
Rudolph Grey
Rudolph Grey is a musician and writer.As an electric guitarist, Grey has recorded and performed under his own name, as well as leading various ad hoc ensembles called The Blue Humans. His music draws on no wave and free jazz....
, and Loren Mazzacane Connors
Loren Mazzacane Connors
Loren MazzaCane Connors is an American experimental musician who has recorded and performed under several different names: Guitar Roberts, Loren Mazzacane, Loren Mattei, and currently Loren Connors...
. He has also recorded several solo albums. Alan participated as drummer 42 in the Boredoms 77 Boadrum
77 Boadrum
77 Boa Drum was a concert held on July 7, 2007 at 7:07 PM consisting of 77 drummers. The concert was organized by Boredoms. The title of the concert was a portmanteau of "Boredoms", "boa", "drum", and "77"...
performance which occurred on July 7th, 2007 at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park
Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park
Empire–Fulton Ferry Park, formerly Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, is a park in Brooklyn, New York, United States. The park is located next to the East River, extending north and south of the Brooklyn Bridge...
in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Musical style
Licht's music draws on a wide range of different styles, from tape-loops, to noisy guitar (sometimes using a prepared instrumentPrepared guitar
A prepared guitar is a guitar that has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques...
), to pure pop music.
Writing
Licht is also a music journalist and writer on minimalist music, and in 2000, he published his first book, An Emotional Memoir of Martha Quinn.. In 2007 Rizzoli published his book Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories.Solo
- Sink the Aging Process (SiltbreezeSiltbreezeSiltbreeze is an American independent record label based out of Philadelphia.-Roster:*1929*A Band*Above Ground*A Handful of Dust*Alan Licht*Alasehir*Alastair Galbraith*Angus Maclise*Ashtabula*Ashtray Navigations*Axemen*Bardo Pond*Blues Control...
1994) - Rabbi Sky (SiltbreezeSiltbreezeSiltbreeze is an American independent record label based out of Philadelphia.-Roster:*1929*A Band*Above Ground*A Handful of Dust*Alan Licht*Alasehir*Alastair Galbraith*Angus Maclise*Ashtabula*Ashtray Navigations*Axemen*Bardo Pond*Blues Control...
1999) - Plays Well (Crank Automotive 2000)
- A New York MInute (XI 2003)
- YMCA (Family Vineyard 2009)
with The Blue HumansThe Blue HumansThe Blue Humans is the name used by experimental guitarist Rudolph Grey for the improvised performances he leads with a variety of other musicians. Grey first came to notice in the late-1970s New York post punk and art scene which also produced Sonic Youth and Swans, and played in the influential...
- Clear to Higher Time (New AllianceNew Alliance RecordsNew Alliance Records was the record label founded by The Minutemen's D. Boon and Mike Watt and longtime friend and associate Martin Tamburovich after the example of Black Flag's SST Records...
1992)
with JandekJandekJandek is the musical project of an anonymous outsider musician who operates out of Houston, Texas. Since 1978, Jandek has self-released over 60 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting more than the occasional interview or providing any biographical...
- Glasgow Sunday 2005 (Corwood IndustriesCorwood IndustriesCorwood Industries is a Houston, Texas-based company whose only output would appear to be the music of Jandek. It is not known what other ventures, if any, that Corwood Industries may be involved with....
2008) (Uncredited on 'Tribal Ether')
with Loren Mazzacane ConnorsLoren Mazzacane ConnorsLoren MazzaCane Connors is an American experimental musician who has recorded and performed under several different names: Guitar Roberts, Loren Mazzacane, Loren Mattei, and currently Loren Connors...
- Live In NYC (New World of Sound 1996)
- Two Nights (Road Cone Records 1996)
- Mercury (Road Cone Records 1997)
- Hoffman Estates (Drag CityDrag City (record label)Drag City is a Chicago-based independent record label. It was established with a Royal Trux release in 1990 in Chicago, Illinois by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn.Drag City specializes in experimental indie rock acts...
1998) - In France (FBWL 2003)
with Lovechild
- Okay? (Homestead 1991)
- Witchcraft (Homestead 1992)
with Run On
- On/Off (MatadorMatador RecordsMatador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of indie rock artists and bands.-History:Matador was started by Chris Lombardi in 1989 in his New York City apartment. The following year, Lombardi was joined by former Homestead Records manager Gerard Cosloy, and the two of them have...
1995) - Start Packing (MatadorMatador RecordsMatador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of indie rock artists and bands.-History:Matador was started by Chris Lombardi in 1989 in his New York City apartment. The following year, Lombardi was joined by former Homestead Records manager Gerard Cosloy, and the two of them have...
1996) - No Way (MatadorMatador RecordsMatador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of indie rock artists and bands.-History:Matador was started by Chris Lombardi in 1989 in his New York City apartment. The following year, Lombardi was joined by former Homestead Records manager Gerard Cosloy, and the two of them have...
1997)
with The Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean (band)The Pacific Ocean was an American indie rock band formed in 1996 and based in New York City.Edward Baluyut had left Versus in 1996 due to work and family commitments and had played drums for Connie Lovatt's band Containe that year. Shortly afterward, Connie and Edward formed The Pacific Ocean...
- So Beautiful and Cheap and Warm (TeenBeat RecordsTeenBeat RecordsTeen Beat is an independent record label, originally based in Arlington, VA, now based in Cambridge, MA. It was founded by Mark Robinson in 1984 at Wakefield High School along with Phil Krauth , Andrew Beaujon , Tim Moran , and Ian Zack .The label was originally set up like a lending library...
2002)
External links
- Artist page at Drag CityDrag City (record label)Drag City is a Chicago-based independent record label. It was established with a Royal Trux release in 1990 in Chicago, Illinois by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn.Drag City specializes in experimental indie rock acts...
website. - Licht's minimalist music top 10 for Halana magazine.
- Viva Radio's 77 Boadrum Site Profile
- Alan Licht and Aki Onda, Everydays http://www.insound.com/Alan_Licht_and_Aki_Onda/artistmain/artist/INS36134/
- Licht interview with Dan Warburton (Paris Transatlantic)
- Licht interview with Ben Judson (NeoAztlan)
- Alan Licht at Arcane Candy