Will Stratton - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Early life

Will was born in northern California, but raised primarily in New Jersey. He began taking piano lessons at the age of 4. He spent one year at University of Puget Sound

University of Puget Sound

The University of Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college located in the North End of Tacoma, Washington, in the United States...

studying philosophy, before finishing college at Bennington College

Bennington College

Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...

, where he switched his studies to music composition. While at Bennington, Stratton took classes from composer Allen Shawn

Allen Shawn

Allen Shawn is an American composer, pianist, educator, and author who lives in Vermont.-His music:Among Shawn's available recordings are several of chamber music, a collection of piano music, and his Piano Concerto performed by Ursula Oppens with the Albany Symphony Orchestra under the direction...

, which led him to compose his first pieces for other ensembles than a standard string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

. Stratton has incorporated projects from his course work at Bennington into his albums, including a set of ten piano preludes composed for a second course taught by Shawn. He is 23 years old and currently lives 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.

Musical career

His first album, What the Night Said

What the Night Said (album)

What the Night Said is the debut album from Will Stratton. It was recorded the summer after his senior year of high school in a small recording studio in Astoria, Queens, New York, but not released until two years later.-Critical reception:...

, was recorded in 2005, the summer after he graduated from high school, and was subsequently released in 2007. It featured a guest appearance by Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came...

on oboe, and received wide critical praise.

His second album, titled No Wonder

No Wonder

-Critical reception:The album received generally favorable reviews. PopMatters cited a further advancement in writing and composition as "stronger, meatier, and much braver" than What the Night Said, but noted that some of the forays into pop-rock territory were distracting from the overall flow...

, featured the vocal work of Essie Jain

Essie Jain

Essie Jain is an English indie singer-songwriter born and raised in London, who is now based out of New York City.-Biography:Her first published work was a single track, "Why", on the album The Sound the Hare Heard, which contains a single track each from a large number of artists including Sufjan...

, among others, and was released on November 3, 2009. No Wonder

No Wonder

was co-produced and mixed by Kieran Kelly at The Buddy Project Studio in Astoria, Queens NY. While the album never saw national distribution, No Wonder

No Wonder

's title track was the NPR Song of the Day on March 26, 2010.

He has also released two free download-only compilations of demos and instrumental works, as well as, most recently, Vile Bodies, a free downloadable EP titled.

In March 2010, Stratton appeared on WNYC

WNYC

WNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...

radio show Spinning On Air for an hour-long interview and performance with host David Garland. In a first for the show, Stratton and WNYC gave away the songs from the episode as a free EP.

Stratton is currently working on his third and fourth albums.

Influences

Stratton is a "self professed disciple of Nick Drake

Nick Drake

Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...

." He has also been described as functioning "under the wing of Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens

." Some have gone as fair as to say that the resemblance to Drake is "unmistakable" at points, while his similarity to Stevens is "so apparent."

Studio albums

What the Night Said
What the Night Said (album)
What the Night Said is the debut album from Will Stratton. It was recorded the summer after his senior year of high school in a small recording studio in Astoria, Queens, New York, but not released until two years later.-Critical reception:...

(2007)
No Wonder
No Wonder
-Critical reception:The album received generally favorable reviews. PopMatters cited a further advancement in writing and composition as "stronger, meatier, and much braver" than What the Night Said, but noted that some of the forays into pop-rock territory were distracting from the overall flow...

(2009)
New Vanguard Blues (2010)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.