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Leonardo Electronic Directory
David First
David First |
It would probably be fair to say that David First has had an eclectic musical career. At the age of twenty he played guitar with renowned jazz pianist Cecil Taylor in a legendary Carnegie Hall concert. Two years after that he was creating electronic music at Princeton University and leading a Mummer‰s String Band. He has played in raucous, drunken bar bands and in concert halls with classical ensembles. As a composer he has created everything from finely crafted pop songs to long, severely minimalist soundscapes. A 45rpm single release, The Zipper, by his punk-era rock band, The Notekillers, was cited by Sonic Youth‰s Thurston Moore as one of the songs he played for the rest of the band when they were starting out. Moore recently called it a "mind-blowing instrumental single" in the British rock magazine Mojo. The Notekillers CD (Notekillers 1977-1981) š a compilation of recordings by the instrumental trio (with First on guitar) was released in October 2004 on Moore‰s Ecstatic Peace label. The CD has been called "astonishing" by Kelefa Sanneh in The New York Times and the original members of the band have reunited. Known for his dense, mesmerizing drone structures--which he has been experimenting with since his teens--as well as his intense and highly unusual, minimalist approach to the guitar, First has been a pivotal figure in the world of experimental music, releasing recordings on O.O. Discs and Analysand as well as works on the CRI, Aerial, Homestead, Sonic Arts Network and EMF labels. A recent CD entitled "Dave's Waves - A Sonic Restaurant" - the music from his sound installation of the same name in Lier, Belgium - was the first international release on the highly regarded Italian label ants. His music has been performed in the USA at The Kitchen, Bang On A Can, Central Park Summerstage, the CMJ Music Marathon, Joe‰s Pub, The Knitting Factory, Tonic, Merkin Hall, CBGB‰s, and The Spoleto Festival. He has also been presented extensively in Europe - appearing at Podewil, the USArts Festival, Institut Unzeit (Berlin) as well as at De Ijsbreker (Amsterdam), the Heidelberger Festival for Experimental Music and Literature (Heidelberg), ZwischenTone Festival (Kûln), The Impakt Festival (Utrecht), Het Apollohuis (Eindhoven), and the Brugge Concertgebeouw (Brugge). First has also presented sound installations at Kunstforeningen (Copenhagen), the Uppsala Konstmuseum (Uppsala), Exit Art (New York), Voorkamer (Lier) and Studio Five Beekman (NYC). First has garnered an impressive amount of glowing press over the years. He has been called "a fascinating artist with a singular technique" in The New York Times, and "a bizarre cross between Hendrix and La Monte Young" in The Village Voice. Regarding the New York production of his opera created in response to the AIDS crisis, The Manhattan Book of the Dead, Kyle Gann of The Village Voice wrote: "The music grew and grew in scintillating, illusionary beauty long past the point at which you thought it could still surpass itself". First was also proclaimed "the next big thing in guitar gods" by K. Leander Williams in Time Out New York. There have been articles about him in both Guitar Player and Keyboard Magazine as well as in MusikTexte (Germany), Arude, Atlantica (Spain) and a recent issue of Tape Op. There are entries about his music in the books American Music in the Twentieth Century (Gann/Schirmer) and La Musica Minimalista (Antognozzi/Edizioni Textus). When the world was stunned on September 11th, 2001, First š who lived two blocks from Ground Zero with his wife, visual artist Patricia Smith - was forced to leave his home. Escaping over the Brooklyn Bridge after the second tower collapse, they were out of their home for two weeks. Shortly after his return he wrote and recorded a song entitled "Jump Back - an ode to the people of New York City". From October 2001 to January 2002 First gave out over 4,000 of these CD‰s free of charge at the Ground Zero site, at firehouses, related benefits, on the subway, etc. As Time Out New York's Jay Ruttenberg wrote: "Spirited, uplifting, and honest, it (Jump Back) makes a nice candidate for a time-capsule piece about this autumn". First was also cited for his efforts in an article by Jon Pareles in The New York Times and by The New York Resident which named him one of the "Top 100 New Yorkers of 2002". In November of 2001 he performed the song at the United Nations. This song remains available on his website. In 2001, First was awarded the prestigious "Grant to Artists" from the Foundation of Contemporary Performance Arts - an organization founded by John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg. He has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Copland Foundation and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, among others. His most recent projects include a an audio/video performance and cyber-based project called Operation:Kracpot that explores First‰s recent investigations into brainwave manipulation and the Earth‰s electromagnetic field, and a techno dance single featuring the sounds of elephants called "Eletranz" that is being released in Thailand to help support the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. |
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| Updated 14 December 2004. |
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