After enrolling at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Art in 1954 at the age of 14, Californian wonder boy Terry Jennings met La Monte Young. Both composers shared the idea of music that prolongs time and ultimately dissolves it. Six years later, Jennings presented his works to the New York avantgarde scene – in Yoko Ono's loft.
After her brother died of AIDS in 1986, Diamanda Galás took the side of those affected by the disease. The New York avantgarde artist and soprano opposed the Catholic Church’s view that AIDS was a punishment from God.
With self-built electronic instruments and performances influenced by Dadaism, Cabaret Voltaire from Sheffield paved the way for industrial culture in the mid-1970s. In his 1982 solo album Pow-Wow, founding member Stephen Mallinder explored the possibilities of dynamic minimalism.
According to legend, the Sami people, who live mainly in northern Scandinavia, received the tradition of joik singing in pre-Christian times from Arctic elves and fairies. These days, Ánde Somby attempts to make contact with the spirits through improvised joik pieces to inquire about their well-being.
By the mid-1970s, the hippie spirit had faded in California. However, with the Los Angeles Free Music Society, pioneers of the DIY aesthetic were already waiting in the wings. Its members liked the absurd and were inspired by the idea of a non-musical approach to music.
Soliman Gamil was unimpressed by the artistic possibilities of tape recording when he studied in Paris in the early 1950s. At that time, Musique Concrète was emerging there thanks to the new technology. But Gamil was only in the city to learn about Western composition from Nadia Boulanger.
