Heavenly Music Corporation Biography
American composer and sound designer Kim Cascone may be more recognizable in his former role as head of Silent Records, the label he founded in the mid-'80s, but his recordings as Spice Barons, Thessalonians, PGR, and, most often, Heavenly Music Corporation or his own name, have been equally as visible. A soundtrack composer through the early '80s before striking out on his own, Cascone studied electronic music arrangement and composition formally at the Berklee College of Music in the early '70s before studying in with Dana McCurdy at Manhattan's New School in 1976. Subsequently working as assistant musical supervisor under director David Lynch on both Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart, Cascone left Hollywood for San Francisco in the mid-'80s to pursue solo composition, forming Silent Records in 1986 after self-releasing his first PGR album, Silence. Though far more abrasive and conflicted than much of his later work, PGR's use of texture and compositional chance is a constant through the whole of Cascone's oevre. A number of PGR titles followed -- both on Silent and the RRRecords, Noctovision, and Permis de Construire labels -- and Cascone has since gone on to record primarily as Heavenly Music Corporation, releasing the bulk of his work through Silent. Deriving the name from the seminal recording by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp on their 1973 collaboration No Pussyfooting, HMC's focus, with some exception, has been on beatless ambient, beginning in 1993 with In a Garden of Eden (composed just prior to the birth of Cascone's son, Cage), and working through a series of releases in the mid-'90s. Working toward increasingly abstract aural sculptures, HMC's dabbling with the club culture most new ambient composers look to for inspiration has stretched no further than the spares rhythms that pervade Consciousness III and some of Lunar Phase, with the lion's share of his material drawing from early electronic and musique concrete composers such as Morton Subotnick, John Cage, and Luciano Berio. Cascone left Silent in 1996 to pursue design and composition at Headspace, a multimedia company started by Thomas Dolby. [See Also: Kim Cascone, PGR] ~ Sean Cooper, All Music Guide
Popular Biographies:
Looptroop Biography: The brainchild of producer Scott Tinsley, the electronica project Looptroop debuted in 1998 with the LP The King of Disco'in, issued on the Different Drummer label. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music...
Cabbageboy Biography: London-based experimentalist Si (Simon) Begg is a member of the notorious Cabbage Head artist collective, formed in 1990 in the midlands town of Leamington Spa, and also including noted dance...
Cypress hill Biography: Cypress Hill were notable for being the first Latino hip-hop superstars, but they became notorious for their endorsement of marijuana, which actually isn't a trivial thing. Not only did the group...
Mushroomhead Biography: Known for its theatrical live show and the black masks that most of its members wear on-stage, Mushroomhead is one of the more unique and adventurous alternative metal outfits that emerged in the...
Cryptic slaughter Biography: The original Speedcore merchants, Cryptic Slaughter dealt a West Coast hand into the late ‘80's Crossover movement, a movement that saw the normally warring armies of punk rock and thrash metal...
Boy george Biography: British singer Boy George combined a strong, soulful singing voice with a provocative sense of fashion, both of which were first brought to the attention of English and American audiences in the...
Montag Biography: This DJ released his first effort in 1999 on Echo. The Calling received strong reviews among various electronica and dance magazines in North America as well as in Europe. Montag, which is taken from...
Eloy Biography: One of the most popular German bands of the '70s, Eloy went through several stages in their long career, with the only constant member being guitarist/vocalist Frank Bornemann. Transforming from a...