Paris Graphics

Karlheinz Stockhausen passed away last week.

To me, he was a great inspiration. I think that I first heard Stockhausen when I was a teenager or maybe younger. It was unlike anything that I ever heard before and opened my musical horizons. It was probably this that got me interested in electronic music. Electronics allow one to create and explore new musical worlds and this was more exciting to me than playing C, F, G over and over and over.

The picture above is an old one and I include it because I think it may be the first picture that I ever saw of him. I could tell from the picture that this is someone who I wanted to know more about. Over the years, I collected many of his works but I think what I enjoyed most was the interviews and lectures. Often I would read them when I needed inspiration and they always sparked ideas even if they were only tangential to what he was talking about - which I think is even better! It’s not necessary (or useful, or even possible) to be inspired to try to recreate what someone else has done - just getting the creative ideas going is enough.

He left a great body of work and I’m sure he will be remembered for many, many years.

The official website has a very nice collection of texts, interviews, and talks.