Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most important electronic music composers of the 20th Century died Wednesday according to the Berlin-based Stockhausen Music Foundation's press release. It gave no cause of death. He was 79.
Along with other musical rebels of the postwar compositional landscape including John Cage, LaMonte Young, and Morten Subotnick Stockhausen radically departed from the world of compostion based in chords, harmony, and melody creating a convoluted myriad of rhythm and noise layered into textures that were both hauntingly familiar and yet abstract and alien. His influences lead directly to the explosion of electronic music in the 1970s and 1980s directly influencing pop artists such as Can. Kraftwerk, and even Grandmixer D. St on his scratching for Herbie Hancock's "Rockit". Revered as a true innovator you can see his face amongst the crowd assembled on the Beatles' landmark Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
His irreverant spirit will be sorely missed...
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