Howard Stelzer
Howard Stelzer | |
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Birth name | Howard Stelzer |
Born |
1974 Belle Harbor, New York, Long Island, New York, United States |
Genres | Musique concrète, Electroacoustic music, Experimental music |
Occupation(s) | Composer, record producer, teacher |
Instruments | Tape recorder |
Years active | 1990–present |
Labels | Intransitive Recordings, RRRecords, Audiobot, Troniks, Chondritic Sound, Students of Decay, Crippled Intellect Productions, Korm Plastics, American Tapes, Port, Banned Productions, Middle James Co., Cardinal, Razors and Medicine, Banned Productions |
Associated acts | Stelzer & Talbot, The BSC, Ouest, Skeletons Out, TWIN |
Website | www.intransitiverecordings.com |
Howard Stelzer (born 1974, in Belle Harbor, New York) is a composer of electronic music, whose work is made primarily from sounds generated by cassette tapes and tape players. In 1997, he founded the independent record label Intransitive Recordings, through which he published CDs and records of experimental music by artists such as Brume, Jason Lescalleet, John Hudak, Kyle Bobby Dunn, Nerve Net Noise, nmperign, Jim Haynes, Brendan Murray, Seht, Lethe, Kapotte Muziek, Lionel Marchetti, Roel Meelkop, C. Spencer Yeh, and many others.
Early Years
Stelzer grew up on Long Island, NY, before moving with his family to Boca Raton, FL when he was 12 years old. While in high school, Stelzer began making crude noise collages with cassette tapes and a simple home stereo system. His first concerts consisted of playing back these tapes while striking metal percussion instruments made from car parts and sheet metal scavenged from junk yards. After a few small-edition cassette tapes distributed for free to friends, Stelzer published his debut album, "Stone Blind", as a CD on his own Intransitive Recordings label in 1997. The album consisted of three related pieces, each roughly 20 minutes long, and made out of crudely spliced cassette tapes. Each track was recorded in a single take to one side of a 40-minute tape; a piece ended when the tape ran out.
After completing an undergraduate degree in English at the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1998, Stelzer moved to Boston, Massachusetts. In his new city, Stelzer came into contact with musicians working in the free improvisation idiom, such as nmperign, David Gross, and Vic Rawlings, and began using his cassette tapes as instruments for improvised collaborative performances.
Stelzer & Talbot
From 2000 until 2004, Stelzer performed in a duo with turntablist Jason Talbot. Their music was entirely improvised, though they attempted to create a sound the resembled studio-composed spliced tape. The duo toured extensively, performing at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in the Netherlands in 2003, Heaven Gallery in Chicago, Tonic in New York City, and around the US and Canada.
Compositions
After 2004, Stelzer performed less frequently, and concentrated instead on solo compositions and studio collaborations. One of these was Exactly What You Lost, a long-distance collaboration with New Zealand artist Stephen Clover, aka Seht. Stelzer's other collaborators have included Frans de Waard (Kapotte Muziek), Jazzkammer, Emil Beaulieau, Giuseppe Ielasi, Peter Wright, Antony Milton, nmperign, The Cherry Point, Jason Lescalleet, Joseph Hammer, Will Guthrie, Otomo Yoshihide, Jessica Rylan, Sawako, Ben Hall, AMK, John Olson (of Wolf Eyes), Skeletons Out (a duo with turntable and harmonium player Jay Sullivan) and Ouest (a trio with Sullivan and Brendan Murray).
Partial discography
- Howard Stelzer - Stone Blind CD (Intransitive Recordings, US)
- Howard Stelzer - RRRecycled c20 (RRRecords, US)
- Howard Stelzer & Jason Talbot / Mike Bullock - The Idea of Northeast LP (Intransitive Recordings/Math Records, US)
- Howard Stelzer & Frans de Waard - Torn Tongue CDr (Absurd, Greece)
- Vic Rawlings, Howard Stelzer, Jason Talbot - Open CDr (BOXmedia, US)
- Howard Stelzer & Jason Talbot - Songs CD (Intransitive Recordings, US)
- Howard Stelzer & Jason Tabot - Recent Work CDr (RRRecords, US)
- Howard Stelzer & Jason Talbot - Four Sides 2x7" (CIP, US)
- The BSC - Good CD (Grob, Germany)
- Howard Stelzer & The Cherry Point - Gross CDr (Carbon, US)
- Howard Stelzer, Richard Francis, Stefan Neville, Clinton Watkins - lathe-cut 8" (CMR, NZ)
- Howard Stelzer - This Map is a Gift CDr (Gameboy, JP)
- Howard Stelzer & Giuseppe Ielasi - Night Life CD (Korm Plastics, NETH)
- Howard Stelzer & Tim Feeney - Never Happened CDr (Audiobot, Belgium)
- Howard Stelzer & The Cherry Point - Untitled LP (Troniks, US)
- Seht & Stelzer - Exactly What You Lost CD (Intransitive Recordings, US)
- Howard Stelzer - Mincing Perfect Words 3"CDr (Chondritic Sound, US)
- Howard Stelzer & Jazzkammer - Tomorrow No One Will Be Safe CD (Pacrec/Troniks, US)
- Howard Stelzer & John Hegre - The Boring Leading the Bored CDr (Humbug, NOR)
- Howard Stelzer - Go On CDr (Banned Productions, US)
- Howard Stelzer - Bond Inlets CD (Intransitive Recordings, US)
- Howard Stelzer & Vic Rawlings - By My Side; I Am Yours CDR (Songs From Under the Floorboards, US)
- Howard Stelzer, Roel Meelkop, Giuseppe Ielasi, Frans de Waard - Zondag CD (Port, JP)
- Skeletons Out - In Remembrance of Me CD (Students of Decay, US)
- Spyked Stelzer - Strangled Pairs CDR (American Tapes, US)
- Skeletons Out & nmperign - Split 7" (Absurd, Greece)
- Howard Stelzer - Apricot War Buffer Zone c20 (Razors and Medicine, US)
- Howard Stelzer & David Payne - Swelter LP (Cardinal Records, Canada)
- Howard Stelzer & Frans de Waard - A Sunburned Grotto 7" (Absurd, Greece)
- HS / AMK - Sleep Debt c40 (Ydlmier, US)
- Howard Stelzer - Always Already c30 (Banned Productions, US)
- Howard Stelzer - The Impossible Astronaut c40 (NNA, US)
References
External links
- Howard Stelzer, Official site
- Intransitive Recordings, Official site
- Students of Decay, publisher of Skeletons Out
- interview by Brad Rose, for Digitalis Magazine
- interview for AddLimb, a Serbian web-zine about improvised music
- video interview by Flasher, from Mutek 2005
- article about Howard Stelzer in Philadelphia CityPaper
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