David Lee Myers profile picture

David Lee Myers

About Me


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Get Your Own! | View Slideshow David Lee Myers is a sound and visual artist living in New York City. He has created sound art based on feedback principles for nearly twenty years, using his unique "feedback machines". As Arcane Device, and more recently under his own name, Myers has had more than twenty recordings released by Recommended/ReR, Generator, Silent, RRRecords, Staalplaat, and many other international labels. In 2003, Myers' fourth collaborative album with Hamburg's Asmus Tietchens was issued on the Line label (New York). In 2004 and 2005 ReR (London) released "Pond" and "Bijou", collaborative works with legendary electronic music pioneer Tod Dockstader. Myers' paintings and works in other media have been shown in numerous galleries throughout the US and in Europe."Both my sound and visual works are the result of capture, selection, processing and combination; essentially, I do not make sounds or draw pictures, but allow latent or unseen forces and processes to present themselves via simple technologies. I select the methods, set the stage, and as the phenomena emerge I of course introduce my own aesthetic judgements to the mix. Therefore the sounds and visuals which are presented are neither completely random science nor the gesture of an artists hand, but something between the two, and I believe this to be the most effective approach toward evoking meaningful impressions of unseen worlds."--DLM

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 9/6/2006
Band Website: pulsewidth.com
Band Members: David Lee Myers. Musicians in collaboration have included Tod Dockstader, Asmus Tietchens, Vidna Obmana, Thomas Dimuzio, Ellen Band, and Ken Montgomery.
Influences: Tom Jenkinson, Stewart Walker, Monolake, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Craig Leon's "Nommos", Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Miles Davis, James Brown, Hendrix, Luigi Russolo, Pierre Henry, David Tudor, Arshile Gorky, Yves Tanguy, Kandinsky, Pollock, Robert Ryman, Mark Tobey, non-western calligraphy, Robert Williams, Ed Roth, Philip K. Dick, Charles Bukowski, Firesign Theatre!
Sounds Like: "I remember seeing Arcane Device (David Lee Myers) play his feedback looping box over a decade ago and being amazed by the sound of sculpted feedback that it produced at one of his rare sets. There were some half dozen releases and collaborations on albums, CDs and even a rare double 7-inch. Mr. Myers eventually took his device apart and retired from music making for almost a decade. Recently David put a new feedback looping device together, started his own label and has just released this fascinating CD "Ourobouros" - it is great to have him back. The twelve tracks here weave through a variety of subtle electronic textures. The sounds on the first track are rather like birds chirping, bowed cymbals, tape manipulation, soft hand percussion and similar sonorous tapestry. There are sounds that repeat but never for very long before they evolve into slightly different textures. There is quite a bit of high-end squeaking which would probably makes dogs howl and many of the sounds seem to be vibrating and slowly changing into something else. After reading through the Forced Exposure (one of our distributors) weekly new release catalogue, I have noticed that there is a movement towards stripped down electronics - thanks to Otomo, the MIMEO collective and numerous Erstwhile sound explorers. Myers seems to fit right in, since his music is all electronics based and seems to use little or no sampled sounds. Track 3 sounds as if he is sampling a crackly old record, but maybe not. The sounds here expand and contract slowly, they bubble and whirl and cautiously get more dense in sections, yet inevitably return to silence. Is that the sound of scissors snipping or the chirping of electronic insects? It really doesn't matter since all of this sonic scenery is so engaging and filled with suspense. Some of these alien transmissions take some getting used to, but this is quite a fascinating blend of sonic architecture."--Downtown Music Gallery, NYC
Record Label: ReR/Line/Staalplaat/Pogus/DiscoBruit/Silent/others
Type of Label: Indie