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(b Santiago, July 20, 1933). Chilean composer and electro-acoustic engineer. He studied at the National Conservatory in Santiago with Urrutia-Blondel (1947–56), at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik with Blacher (1959–60) and at the Badische Hochschule für Musik with Wildberger. Simultaneously he studied engineering at the Catholic University in Santiago (1953–9). As part of his dissertation, in 1959 he assembled the first electro-acoustic music laboratory in Latin America, and composed the region’s first electronic composition, Variaciones espectrales.

Asuar was the Chilean delegate to the 1960 ISCM Festival in Cologne. In 1962 he directed a seminar of electro-acoustic music in Salvador, Brazil. He was Professor of Acoustics and Contemporary Music at the National Conservatory in Santiago (1963–5). In 1964 he taught a seminar in electronic music at the di Tella Institute in Buenos Aires. From 1965 to 1968, at the invitation of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura y Bellas Artes of Venezuela, he established and directed the Instituto de Fonología, the country’s first electro-acoustic music centre....

(b Paris, France, Oct 20, 1950). American composer, keyboardist, electronic musician, and improviser of French birth; naturalized American; daughter of jazz pianist and drummer Errol Parker. She began studying piano and harmony at age 7 and composing at 12. Lauten received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Institut d’Études Politiques in 1971. The following year she relocated to New York City, where she participated in the burgeoning punk rock scene. Through guitarist Denise Feliu, Lauten met the poet Allen Ginsberg, who would have a significant impact upon her spiritual and musical life.

Lauten’s compositional and improvisational practice is exemplary of the musical aesthetics of downtown New York in the 1970s and 80s. A practitioner of both US popular music and European classical music, Lauten blended the two styles with minimalist experimentalism. Lauten’s studies in New York City brought her into contact with the varied denizens of downtown musical life. She studied Indian raga with ...

[Hall, Richard Melville ]

(b Harlem, NY; Sept 11, 1965). American Electronic musician, composer, and DJ. Growing up in Connecticut, Moby (a childhood nickname) studied classical guitar and music theory before founding the suburban punk band Vatican Commandos at age 14. He later learned to play bass guitar, keyboard, and drums. While studying philosophy at University of Connecticut he played with post-punk band AWOL, leaving in 1985 to become more active as a DJ and electronic musician and eventually moving to New York City.

He is critically recognized for his creative combining of electronic house music and judiciously chosen samples; he has also achieved worldwide popular success and brought the genre to mainstream attention. His 1991 single “Go,” which included a sampled theme from David Lynch’s cult TV series Twin Peaks, reached the UK top ten. His breakthrough album Play (1999) sold 10 million copies worldwide in the first year and yielded eight hit singles including “Porcelain,” “Natural Blues,” and “Why does my heart feel so bad?” ...

(b Berlin, Oct 26, 1934). German electronic musician and composer, active in Austria. He has described himself as a painter or poet in sound, and does not regard himself as a traditional composer. He first experimented with spontaneous composition in Berlin during the late 1960s. After co-founding the Zodiac artistic laboratory, he formed the Kluster group (1969) with artist Konrad Schnitzler, a student of Joseph Beuys, and graphic artist Dieter Moebius. The ensemble avoided traditional instruments and improvised with noises and chance sounds. After 1971 Roedelius and Moebius performed as the duo Cluster, conceiving works that organized delicate sounds, created with the aid of sound generators, rhythm machines, electronic organs and special effects, into sweeping ‘soundscapes’. The result was electronic mood music with strong natural echoes. After 1978 Roedelius worked primarily under his own name. With the support of the Alban Berg foundation he founded a small studio in the south of Vienna, where he worked in seclusion. During the 1980s his output was dominated by piano fantasias consisting of simple rippling melodies; he later wrote ballet music and songs. In ...

(b Brooklyn, NY, Sept 10, 1908; d North Hills, CA, Feb 9, 1994). American composer, electronic music pioneer, electronic instrument inventor, and pianist. After attending Brooklyn Technical High School, he studied theory, composition, and piano at the Juilliard School of Music. Following his graduation in 1931, he became a pianist for the CBS Radio orchestra. In 1934, at age 25, he wrote his first hit, later recorded by Louis Armstrong.

In 1936 he assembled a six-piece “Quintette” from his CBS colleagues, including Bunny Berigan, and Johnny Williams, father of movie score composer John Williams. Following successful live radio performances, they began recording on 20 February 1937. Scott’s compositions for this band represent his attempts to rejuvenate Swing music with minimal improvisation and busy, tight arrangements. He dubbed the style “descriptive jazz,” and the Quintette was popular until he disbanded it in 1939. Though Scott didn’t score cartoons, these compositions are familiar to millions because they were adapted into classic Warner Bros. ...

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(b Chatham, ON, May 10, 1947). Canadian composer and electronic music researcher. After completing the BS in mathematics and physics at Queen’s University and the MMus at the University of British Columbia, he studied at Utrecht University with Gottfried Michael Koenig (electronic music and computer composition) and Otto Laske (sonology and procedural theory). In 1973 he joined R. Murray Schafer’s World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University, where in 1976 he was appointed professor in the School of Communication and School for the Contemporary Arts. His innovations include the interactive PODX compositional system, which he has employed in compositions for electronic tape, often in conjunction with instruments, computer graphics and voices.

Truax’s use of frequency modulation culminated with the composition of Solar Ellipse (1984–5). With Riverrun (1986) he became one of the first composers to use real-time granular sound synthesis as a compositional tool. He later refined this procedure to prolong sound sequences without altering their pitch, a technique he used in ...