Contributor Archives: Ryan Kirk

R. Murray Schafer

Posted on 09.06.12 by

As one of a handful of living Canadian composers to cause waves on an international level, Raymond Murray Schafer has pushed the boundaries of music, theatre, and performance through his explorations in environment and ritual. Born in Sarnia, Ontario in 1933, he studied music at both the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music before accepting a teaching position at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. Finding himself increasingly disturbed by the city’s cacophonous backdrop of mechanical noise, Schafer founded the World Soundscape Project. During the late sixties and seventies the WSP dedicated itself to studying the … Continue reading →

About Iancu Dumitrescu

Posted on 19.04.12 by

You are more likely to have heard of Romanian composer Iancu Dumitrescu than to have heard his music. After Stephen O’Malley of Sunn 0))) dropped his name as a major influence in an interview with The Wire in April, 2009, he received his own full article treatment a few months later in October via Philip Clark. Unfortunately, his music remains difficult to acquire, available only through his mail order label Edition Modern and their distributors and in a few clandestine corners of the internet. Unphased by his relative obscurity in the West, Dumitrescu has been doggedly pursuing his own thing for years. Born in 1944 … Continue reading →