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Artist
David Garland
12+ albums
Avant-Gardeexperimentalelectropopsynth
about
David Garland seems to just be. He simply is. No? David Garland’s early fascination with adventurous music was confirmed in 1968 when he attended a concert by Jimi Hendrix and had his 13-year-old mind blown by the opening act, England’s Soft Machine. Growing up in an artistic family in Lexington, Massachusetts, Garland played drums in what was literally a garage band, and taught himself piano and guitar. By the time he attended Rhode Island School of Design (’72-’76, overlapping with members of Talking Heads), Garland was organizing free-improv ensembles, playing jazz piano, composing chamber music, and singing songs. After graduating with honors from RISD, Garland moved to New York City and for ten years supported himself as a graphic designer and illustrator, free-lancing for pianist Paul Bley’s Improvising Artists Inc. record label, La Monte Young, and others. But he was in New York primarily to hear and make music. Garland developed, on piano, an approach to improvisation he considered “instant composition,” and also composed ensemble pieces that were influenced by minimalism; he presented these at the avant garde center The Kitchen and elsewhere. In 1980 Garland joined bassist Bill Laswell, singer Shelley Hirsch, and others, in Nigel Rollings’ band Ad Hoc Rock, as drummer and later as guitarist, keyboardist, and singer. The band played many venues, including The Kitchen, a benefit at Carnegie Hall, and the seminal 1981 “Noise Fest” at White Columns. In 1980 Garland w
