Tim Story

Tim's intensely personal style as a pianist, synthesist and composer developed from years of experimentation in his home studio, and a love of composition. Along with his self-taught,idiosyncratic approach to the piano, Story saw the great potential of the new breed of electronic music instruments that were evolving in the early 70's. This affinity for synthesizers, as well as electric guitars, tape loops and kitchen utensils, is evident in the early recordings. The careful juxtaposition of acoustic instruments with electronic textures, and an inventive approach to composition are common threads running through most of Story's work.

"I like to work with a finite palette of sounds and keep paring things down to a pure, though often ambiguous, expression. Simplicity needn't mean simplemindedness. I think of the deceptively simple, ironic pieces of Erik Satie, or the lovely yet challenging piano music of Debussy. The very best of these pieces appear so effortless and perfect that they seem as if they've existed forever..."

Story also cites a diverse range of musicalpreferences including Bartok, Arvo Part,Miles Davis, Coltrane, Dwight Ashley, Can and Robert Wyatt.

" ...a goal of mine is to get the listeners to put something of themselves into the music. I want to prod the listener to find his or her own feelings about a piece, even if those feelings are sometimes uncomfortable. As Charles Ives said, 'Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair.' I like to think of good music as a sculpture or a Japanese garden, where you can never experience the whole from any one point. Music that insinuates, you must move through it, live with it for a while, before it yields its secrets."

Influences

Let me start by stating my influences in a subtractive way. I've had a good chuckle at some of the Web sites citing influences that I'm quite unaware of. A few have mentioned Keith Jarrett, inexplicably. Another example would be Eric Satie,who is often mentioned in descriptions of my music. The truth is, I had never listened to Satie until people started citing his work as an influence on mine! Since then, I've become quite a fan of his work and his attitude, actually, but it certainly didn't exert any influence in the early days.

Those "early days" were filled with the music my parent's listened to. It may be hard to overestimate the power music had on me as a child. My parents always had music in the house, everything from Stravinsky and Debussy to Simon and Garfunkel. I can remember the "Rite of Spring" and Debussy's "Preludes" clearly from those days.

In the mid 70's I landed a record store job, the holy grail. I had a great manager who was into all the really exciting, if obscure, European music of the time. Robert Wyatt and Can were particular standouts. I gobbled up everything I could afford: King Crimson, Terje Rypdal, Roxy Music, Brian Eno, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Hatfield and the North, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis... I remember Cluster and Roedelius' records were revelations to me, as was Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom". Here were these very iconoclastic, very personal, very individual recordings coming from small European labels, and it was incredible to discover there were people actually making this kind of music, and, possibly, an audience for it as well. So it was probably this period which had a significant impact on my own music, even if it was hopefully more an ideological than stylistic one. Later, the music of Steve Reich, Arvo Part, Coltrane, Bartok and many others would become favorites, but I suppose by then, the seeds had already been planted...

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< View Dwight Ashley's Biography.

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Projects

The Roedelius/Story 'tour' in support of "Lunz" continued in 2006 with a couple of shows in the US (Cincinnati and Lexington) in June, and in Austria in August. Joachim will be coming in November to work on material for a second "Lunz" cd.

Tim is happy to report that "Buzzle", a collection of odd ambient electronica pieces that he has been working on for his own enjoyment over the past few years, will be released by UK label Barking Green in Oct/Nov. One of the tracks "Otherize", appeared as the leadoff track on an Australian compilation cd, "Chasing the Dawn: Ultima Thule Ambient Volume 01"

Current top 5

Dwight Ashley - Ataxia
Saul Stokes - Vast
Dieter Moebius - Nurton
Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Works
Off the Sky - Gently Down the Stream

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