Rick Reed

Born in 1957, Reed came to music by way of the visual arts. He had originally studied painting and creative design, but after being inspired in the mid-70's by early albums of groups such as Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, he soon discovered a natural link between abstract art and abstract music. On moving to Austin in early 1980, he began making his own recordings of electronic sounds using cheap tape recorders and analog synthesizers. Since then, he has branched out to include not only music, but video art, installations, field recordings, soundtracks, as well as continuing his first passion, painting. Recent activities have found Reed serving as the occasional host of Commercial Suicide, KOOP Radio's otherworldly Sunday night creative music showcase, as well as being the musical director of the new Toneburst electronic music series, of which number 5 will be presented in December of this year. Toneburst, like the successful Intersect series before it, features unheard and/or underexposed musicians from Austin's unique experimental underground scene. Over the years, he has appeared in several local groups such as FTC, The Abrasion Ensemble, Field, S.I.R.S.I.T.,The Deep Dream Decoders, The Ethereal Bastards, Knobjobs, and Frequency Curtain, as well as regularly performing as a solo artist. In 2005, he played in a version of Phil Niblock's 'Guitar 2 for 4', under the direction of the composer. April of this year found him touring with ex-AMM guitarist Keith Rowe and WZT Hearts member Michael Haleta in a trio called The Voltage Spooks, appearing in such cities as New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Another collaboration that has yielded fruit has been with New York film maker Ken Jacobs. Since 2004, Reed has worked on soundtracks for several of his Nervous Magic Lantern projects, the most recent of which, "Capitalism: Child Labor" just won the Grand Prize at the Curtas Villa do Conde Film Festival in Portugal. Rick Reed's work can be heard on labels such as Ecstatic Peace, Pale Disc Japan, Beta Lactam Ring, Bremsstralung Recordings and Elevator Bath.