The Squid's Ear Magazine


Myers, David Lee: Ether Music (Starkland)

Best known for his work under the name Arcane Device in the 80s and 90s, New York sound artist David Lee Myers carves a unique path in electronics and what he refers to as "feedback music", developing unique approaches and instruments to generate distinctive forms of electronic music, here in a 10 track album of stunningly beautiful and mysterious sound.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



David Lee Myers-composer, performer


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UPC: 754702022722

Label: Starkland
Catalog ID: ST-227
Squidco Product Code: 25241

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2017
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded by the artist.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Ether Music is hardly David Lee Myers' first foray into this brand of sonic invention, where explorations on the edge of audible electronics mirror a visionary quest into the same electronic pulse that inhabits all organic life. It's a place where advanced technical experimentation forms the perfect complement for this ancient journey through the bardos of vivid inner landscapes aglow with the fission of an illuminated world, a world that answers our inquiry and is alive in a way less like a thought than a mind."-Dan Visconti



"David Lee Myers (b1949; aka - between 1987 and 1993 - 'Arcane Device') is a leading figure in American electroacoustic music, most specifically of 'feedback music', created entirely synthetically with no standard acoustical sound input (so his music is properly considered purely electronic). Myers's creations in this field - he does not see himself as a composer as such - have been described variously as 'the sound of electricity singing to itself' or 'sounds from the ether', the latter providing the title for this latest album.

The works here have all been created by Myers using his own invention, the feedback workstation, an electronic fusion of mixing board, computer, synthesiser and ring modulators. The results are a little startling at first, although the first track, 'implicate order', eases one in gently. For large stretches not much seems to happen, giving the feeling of a form of electronic minimalism, but later tracks - for instance, 'what's happening inside highs and lows' -introduce sonorities that sound as if reimagined from 'real' inputs, such as drills or motor saws.

There's little separation between tracks, so 'Ether Music' plays as if it were one large, hour-long composition (sorry, David). It has a rather mesmeric attraction and travels in the way any large-scale piece should do, not unlike, say, Paul Dolden's (Starkland, 1/15). Some might aver that this is just (semi-organised) noise, not music, but I would disagree; it may not be particularly to my taste but this is music in any meaningful definition of the word. The sound, recorded and mixed by Myers himself, must be heard as being to specification. Feedback welcome!"-Guy Rickards, Grammophone


Get additional information at Gramophone

Artist Biographies

"David Lee Myers is a sound and visual artist who has lived and worked in New York City since 1977. Pulsewidth serves as the platform for his activities in the arts, particularly sound projects, a number of which have been released under the Pulsewidth record label.

From 1987 through 1993, sound projects were developed under the name Arcane Device. With the development of new devices in 2014, it seems fitting for the moniker to be revived.

Myers work stems from an enthusiasm for electronics and the world of electrons as it relates to the realm of vibration and sound. After a fine arts education and many years in music, in 1987 Myers' accidental discovery of "Feedback Music" led to a new appreciation of the unseen forces underlying audible electronics."

-Pulsewidth (http://www.pulsewidth.com/)
3/25/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Implicate Order 5:27

2. Rigid And Fluid Bodies 4:20

3. Astabilized 5:06

4. What's Happening Inside Highs And Lows 5:27

5. Arabic Science 4:23

6. The Dynamics Of Particles 4:42

7. Radial/Axial 7:05

8. Royale Polytechnique 4:37

9. Growth Cones 4:58

10. Dorsal Streaming 10:18

Related Categories of Interest:


Electro-Acoustic
Organized Sound and Sample Based Music
Electronic Forms
Solo Artist Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Experimental & Electronic Music

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