Paul Dresher (1951, Los Angeles), a graduate of Mills College (where he studied
with
Terry Riley
and
Steve Reich)
and UC San Diego (with teachers such as
Robert Erickson,
Roger Reynolds
and
Pauline Oliveros), where he earned his degree in 1979, was originally a solo performer on electronic tapes (or rather on a “live tape processing system”) but then began
composing music for the theater, such as SeeHear (1984), for soprano, two tenors and 13 instrumentalists, and Shelf Life (1987), as well as several chamber works. While retaining the hypnotic quality of minimalism, his compositions arise from the superimposition of several discrete processes.
His first major composition was perhaps This Same Temple (1977) for two pianos, which explores Steve Reich’s cyclic patterns and phasing. His true vocation emerged with two works at the turn of the decade, Liquid And Stellar Music (1979) and Dark Circumstance (1981), both scored for electric guitar and loops, in which he applies minimalist techniques to complex electronic polyphonies reminiscent of the discrete music of Brian Eno. These early works are collected on This Same Temple & Liquid and Stellar Music (Lovely, 1983). The reissue, This Same Temple (Lovely, 1996), added Water Dreams.
At the time
his ensemble normally consisted of himself on guitar or organ, a singer, and a drummer, but Dresher also composed an austere string quartet (Casa Vecchia, premiered by the Kronos Quartet in 1982), Night Songs (1982), for vocal permutations of a soprano and two tenors, strings and brass on Native American texts (especially the Dream Music), and Channels Passing (1983) for violin, cello and wind quintet, one of his peaks.
The trilogy “How,” which includes The Way of How (1981), “Are Are” (1982) and “See Hear” (1983), his most imposing dramatic construction, composed for George Coates, consists of a collection of surreal and disconnected fragments.
That trilogy foreshadowed the opera Slow Fire (1985–88), in collaboration with tenor Rinde Eckert, the absurdist monologue of an anti-hero whose voice is electronically processed and accompanied by keyboards.
Both Dresher and Rinde Eckert left Coates' troupe after 1983.
They then collaborated on a new trilogy of productions.
Slow Fire (1988), collected on Slow Fire (Minmax, 1992),
was the first part of such "American Trilogy", which continued with
Power Failure (1989) and ended with Pioneer (1990).
The three operas mix rock, minimalism and world-music.
Starting with the
Night Songs, released on
Night Songs/ Channels Passing (New Albion 003, 1984),
Dresher seemed to have found in the human voice the most appropriate instrument
for his sound manipulations.
After leaving Coates'
Dresher went on to compose and stage another trilogy with writer/performer Rinde Eckert and sometimes John Dykers. Unlike the Coates shows, the operatic settings actually used real words with subjects ranging from making of an American hit man (Slow Fire - 1988), to capitalism in the health industry (Power Failure - 1989), to the notion of the future as the last unexplored frontier (Pioneer - 1990).
Opposites Attract (New World, 1991) was a collaboration with jazz woodwind player Ned Rothenberg, bassists Anthony Jackson and Mark Dresser, drummers Bobby Previte, Gene Reffkin and Samm Bennett. The result is surprisingly close to
Fripp's, Eno's and Byrne's futuristic world-music (Untold Story).
Dark Blue Circumstance (New Albion NA053, 1993) and
Casa Vecchia (Starkland, 1995)
collect a few chamber and electronic works.
The former contains
Dark Blue Circumstance, for electric guitar and tape processing,
the chamber septet Channels Passing (1982),
Double Ikat (1989), a trio for violin, piano and percussion,
Night Songs for three singers and six musicians.
The latter contains
the double string quartet Casa Vecchia, Underground, Other Fire, Mirrors.
He has also composed Re:act:ion (1984) for symphony orchestra,
Cornucopia (1990) for chamber orchestra.
He has scored several dance pieces:
The Gates - Far Away Near (1993),
Awed Behavior (1993) for voices and quartet (Phil Aaberg on keyboards, Paul Hanson on bassoon, clarinet and saxophone, Gene Reffkin on drums, Dresher on MIDI guitar and samplers),
Kalasam, In The Name, etc.
Sound Stage (2001) involved a set made entirely of invented musical instruments.
Cage Machine (New Albion, 2005) collects
chamber works from 1994 till 2002:
Concerto for Violin and Electro-Acoustic Band (1997),
Elapsed Time (1998),
Din of Iniquity (1994).
In the Nameless (2002) and
Glimpsed from Afar (2006) are duos for quadrachord.
Other compositions include:
Fail Safe (1993);
Blue Diamond (1995) for solo piano;
Unequal Distemperament (2001);
Time Passes (2008);
Moving Light (2012);
Family Matters (2014);
A Picture Stands in Solitude (2015);
Moving Parts (2016).
Family Matters (2014) for cello and piano is a three-movement piece.
The first one engages in intricate high-speed minimalist patterns that rise and fall like a tumultous waterfall. The second one begins as an impressionistic adagio with the two instruments taking turns at serenading the listener but soon
becoming entangled in a tense dialogue. The third one morphs from
funereal to tormented.
Glimpsed from Afar (2006) for quadrachord and marimba lumina is
electronic space-age music. A minimalist crescendo, an ecstatic swirling dance that is part gamelan and part gypsy, is followed by
Morton Subotnick-like dissonance,
a rumbling cacophony, chaotic and visceral industrial clangor,
something like a hybrid of free-jazz improvisation, a carpet bombing and
an orgy of African percussion.
Other compositions for invented instruments include:
Schick Machine (2009), a cross between music, theater, and sculpture;
the Concerto for Quadrachord & Orchestra (2012);
and Sound Maze (2015), a sound installation of twelve invented large-scale musical instruments (a collaboration with Daniel Schmidt).
Other collaborations with Margaret Jenkins' dance company include
Toward 45 (2018),
Trace Figures (2019),
Breathing at the Boundaries (2020),
"Global Moves" (2022) ,
etc.
His compositions include:
"Crazy Eights & Fractured Symmetries" (2016) for symphony orchestra;
"Family Matters" (2014), a duo for cellist Ashley Bathgate and pianist Lisa Moore;
and the piano sonata "Two Entwined" (2011).
