Music:
Member Since: 1/12/2007
Band Website: www.classicalcomposers.org/petercoukis
Band Members: for the past few years i've been composing heavily for solo instruments (keyboard suites;piano sonatas;organ sonata;extended works for synthesized orchestra etc.),...so, no, there are no other band members right now.
Influences: Peter Coulis' record collection (circa 1967); Lawrence Honan's astute analizations of sub melodies and themes in Schumann and Chopin's piano compositions (early 1970's); listening to Revolution 9 backwards with my neighborhood friends and really being creeped out (circa 1968); the Paul is Dead mystery;...having Barbara Lyga's (the most beautiful senior at Wilby High, 1971) full attention at a Halloween Dance; Beverly Bremers' Don't Say you Don't Remember; being a Music Major at WesConn in Danbury, (circa 1972); being taught how to improvise on the alto sax by Kenneth Fears; James Furman; a girl named Nancy S.... watching Todd Rundgren record "Sons of 1984" summer of 1973, at Wollman Rink, Central Park..seeing him jamming on Crossrads ... bleak winter landscapes and the way cold air feels on my face on a snowy day; anything recorded by Mariah Carey (all of which i've listend to countless times); my son;....any movie that has Angela Bettis or Phoebe Dollar in it; New England in autumn; Impressionist Painters; Degas at the Met, late 1970's... Warhol; Albert Pinkham Ryder; Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson; John Lennon; Revolution 9; the white album when it first came out (it blighted my innocence); jimi hendrix electric ladyland; David Lynch's ERASERHEAD; Blue Velvet; the story of Adele H; being blown away by pianist Alphonse Ranaudo's incredible keyboard dexterity and his performance of Bach's Italian Concerto, 3rd Movement; knowing Daniel DaSilva... working with my songwriting partner, Leonard j. Pepin; ; being inspired by James Furman to be a serious composer; accompanying James Velasco and Edward Sarath at various WesConn recitals and learning much from them in return (thanks)...; hippie girls; Yes's "close to the edge" (just blew me away....especially that prolouge thing before the first melodic theme comes in);... tintypes; early photography, especially communion photos and post mortems from the early 1900's; anything concerning New York history; Civil War History; low budget horror films from the early 1970's; Victorian mansions; Mistress Persephone and all of her magnificent debauchery...she's my pal and muse...little Monica , my Godchild, Anele and Risha....nieces......Gene Tierney (who went to school in Waterbury); Don't Look in the Basement; S.f. brownrigg; remembering dead friends and relatives; finding dead beautiful girls monuments in old cemeteries and trying to connect with them (sometimes i think "dead girls are better:...less likely to stray;... the fall of 1980 when Lennon made his comeback.... december 8, 1980; John Lennon's post- murder pilgrimage to The Dakota with my friend Bob Wilkie;... discovering Brian Eno;... discovering The Residents;...rediscovering The Grateful Dead;..books on arcane subjects; "the Bad Seed"; The Exorcist"; seeing people dying of cancer; childhood pilgramages to Salem Mass; .... trying to steam off the cover of "Yesterday and Today to find the "Butcher Cover" underneath, (but didn't) (1966); staring at my cousin Peter's copy of theButcher cover for hours and being really creeped out; sideshow freaks; discovering Arbus's photography; discovering tape sampling; the outsider art of Henry Dargerand his Vivian Girls...fragrances, perfume, incence; Rosemary's Baby; i'm usually influenced by anything that's new and good...and by things that are somtimes shocking at first,... but which later sink in and become indelibly impressed into my pysche. I love dark stuff....there's beauty in darkness. I love beauty and am always being inspired by landscapes, classical music and beautiful feminine faces.... it all comes out in my music ....and it all comes out sounding like a highly personal musical expression. I'm also heavily influenced by history and the past....including my past, growing up during the early 1970's.
Sounds Like: Todd Rundgren; late Beatles; Debussey; Charles Ives; film music; horror film music; Black Tape for a Blue Girl; Enigma; and some sounds that are just uncategorizezble, etc.,,,,,that's all i can think of right now
Record Label: Blue Plum / Weird Garden Records
Type of Label: Indie
