Artist description I just listened to your CD. What a trip. I loved it! I listened on headphones so the sound was right inside my head. The waves at the end seemed to go THROUGH my head. All the technique of the sound was very present and doing a kind of dance with the ancient feel of much of the music. So it seems like it's jumping around by centuries - no, eons - hillbilly banjo to medieval Arab song to cut-up 21st century computer music to 5,000 year old clan chant that is made out of cut-up 21st century computer music that becomes the background for "if I had the wings . . " so nice. This is not at all the kind of thing I ever listen to these days and it was so refreshing to get into such an evocative music. Gerald Shapiro, Brown University

Music Style Electronic/Classical

Musical Influences Bach/Stravinsky/Gabriel/Byrne/Piazzola

Similar Artists Aphex Twin, Bill Laswell, Peter Gabriel

Artist History Nothing was more Mozartean than the deceptive simplicity of Harper's "vernacular" …Like Wagner's, Harper's tonalities move slowly with a steamroller momentum that eased me through three cases of goose bumps before I knew what had happened. …The choral spirituals…lifted you above the action with a heavenly commentary reminiscent of Monteverdi. Kyle Gann, Village Voice

Group Members A typical Harper score is an amalgam of rock, romanticism, minimalism, jazz, reggae, atonality, electronic music, new age music and a hint of Broadway which sounds surprisingly natural when merged together... By fusing these disparate elements into a unique and powerful new form of opera, the composer creates works of music-theater which happily defy categorization. Joe Banno, Opera Monthly

Instruments Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals

Albums Banjo of Death Sleeping, El Greco, Marlidendur, Requiem

Press Reviews There are composers and there are opera composers. The latter hear not in measures, but in quarter hours. Like Richard Wagner and Robert Ashley before him, William Harper paints in long bold strokes, balancing scenes instead of motives, and propelling the ear on voyages of emotion. Kyle Gann, Village Voice

Location Glencoe, Illinois - USA

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