RIP Tod Dockstader

Left: "Tod Dockstader works in the studio in the early 1960s. Photo: Courtesy Tom Steenland/Starkland"

Sad news in via Atomic Shadow and Cray of Vicmod Records.

Tod Dockstader was one of the pioneers of electronic music working mainly with tape. You can find his Wikipedia page here. Wired has a great interview/write-up posted back in June of 2012.

"Born in 1932, Dockstader was part of the first wave of electronic musicians, who, before the advent of synthesizers in the early 1960s, worked with whatever hardware they could find: reel-to-reel tape machines, sine wave generators and a wild array of homemade circuits and military surplus gear. In the process, they created a universe of electronic music that still sounds unique and prescient today.

The wire recorder Dockstader used to create electronic music was a piece of used military equipment. 'A lot of this [electronic music] happened because, after the war, a lot of the stuff was available,' Dockstader said. 'Normally a person, a civilian … wouldn’t be able to get that tube, this device or that device. That fascinated me.'"

Explore some sound in his memory this weekend.

Below are a few videos in via Cray.  The first is a short on Tod Dockstader recently on Kickstarter, followed by two pieces of his work.  You can find more posts featuring Tod Dockstader here.


Unlocking Dockstader (short) from Justin H Brierley on Vimeo.

The Unlocking Dockstader Kickstarter campaign was posted back in October of 2014.

Tod Dockstader & David Lee Myers - Assembly

Uploaded on Oct 5, 2007

"kaeru"

Tod Dockstader - Water Music, Part 3

Uploaded on Dec 10, 2010 -questasian-

"Taken from the release "Drone, Two Parts Of Apocalypse, Water Music" by Tod Dockstader (1966)

All copyright held by Owl Records. I have only uploaded this because there is not enough of this artist on Youtube for people to enjoy. :)"