Artist description beautiful, thought-provoking ambient excursions into analog and digital realms...some with beats, some beatless and drifting.

Music Style chilled-out, ambient/electronic/space odysseys

Musical Influences timbre, space, repetition, and impressions

Similar Artists WARP artists, FAX artists, Planet Dog Artists, Global Communication, Eno, Cage, Satie

Artist History It all started with a shoebox and rubber bands... Born the son of an electronics industry father, Bobby DeVito was exposed to the wonders of computers and electronics at a very early age. His parents noticed a certain musical bent when his mother discovered young Bobby placing rubber bands on a shoebox in tonal order. Soon the budding musician received a guitar for his birthday. During the early days of his youth, Bobby accompanied his father to work, marveling at the rooms full of mainframe computers at Control Data. He and his father were electronics hobbyists as well, building a digital TV with remote control in 1976.At this time, Bobby got his hands on his first synthesizer - an Arp Axxe. Running this synth through an MXR Flanger and Analog Delay opened worlds of sonic discovery. Nevertheless, the guitar proved to be the main instrument for many years, with Bobby touring the southeastern US with new wave pioneers The X-Statics. DeVito was able to fulfill his synthesizer jones by toying with lead vocalist/keyboardist Jon Allmightey's synths during rehearsals and soundchecks. After seven years of constant touring and performance, the band split up and Bobby headed to south Florida for an unknown musical future. Gathering a 4-track, a drum machine, and some signal processing gear, Bobby recorded "Guitar Salad" during this era. This album was more successful than anything he had done previously, featured on mainstream stations all over Florida and garnering a fair amount of press. Bearing an obvious resemblance to the plethora of instrumental guitar releases of the mid to late 1980's, "Guitar Salad" set Bobby on the solo artist/composer path that he has followed ever since. It was during this time that academia beckoned. Bobby had finished his studies at St Petersburg Junior College, completing their IDS honors program He set his sights on the progressive art school New College in Sarasota Florida. After making it through the gauntlet of admissions tests and interviews, DeVito was accepted and began to work with Professor Steven Miles, the director of the music program at New College. Miles was a huge influence on the budding electronic composer, exposing Bobby to a world of sounds, textures, sociological theory, and music history. It was also coincidental that New College had just built an electronic music studio the year DeVito started his work there, as well as hiring an electronic music professor named Robert Constable. The odyssey had begun. At New College, Bobby was exposed to the music of composers such as John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt, and Iannis Xenakis, as well as philosophers of music such as Walter Benjamin, Simon Frith, and Theodor Adorno. This learning experience helped Bobby to develop his compositional skills and theory, as well as an appreciation of electronic music's history and concepts. During these college days, DeVito managed to secure a job working with BMG Distribution as their College Marketing Rep, a position he held for three years, allowing him to get real-world experience in the music industry. At New College, the student must complete a full thesis in order to graduate. Bobby decided on an ambitious project. He was going to write a book upon the birth and development of ambient music, as well as a CD full of his own electronic/ambient music. Starting with Erik Satie, and ending up with modern day composers such as Aphex Twin, Bobby's thesis covers the dawn and progression of ambient music, the ways of distinguishing ambient music from MUZAK, and the sociological implications of ambient music listener reception by touching on the theories of philosopher Theodor Adorno. The CD, entitled Lux Nova, was a collaboration between DeVito and a friend named Mike Meengs, who is a very skilled electronic music composer and programmer. The thesis was a success. After graduation, DeVito set about to get the CD released commercially. After dozens of rejections, there were several interested labels, including R&S, Subharmonic, and MIRAMAR. After entertaining the offers from each label, Bobby decided to sign with MIRAMAR, home to one of the bands that had influenced him long ago, Tangerine Dream. Lux Nova received tons of press, outstanding critical reviews, and made it to several lists of top releases of 1997. In addition, the CD won the 1999 "Jammy Award" in Florida for best electronic CD. However, with the instability of MIRAMAR after motion picture company UNAPIX bought out the label in 1999, DeVito was again without a label. After doing some international touring with renowned Atlantic blues artist Sherman Robertson as bandleader and second guitarist, Bobby decided to throw in the towel on his guitar days and plunge headlong into the electronic abyss that had beckoned him since his youth. Stargarden was born. Holed up in his second-floor apartment with a few synthesizers and a sampler, DeVito is creating music entirely for the sake of the process. Stargarden music ranges from drifting ambient space music to a beat driven electronica. Relying on timbre, repetition, and space, the music is a mix of the influences that Bobby has received - artists such as Tangerine Dream, Aphex Twin, Peter Namlook and the FAX label artists, Global Communication, John Cage, and many others. After discovering the magic of the Internet, particularly the website MP3.com, Stargarden music was uploaded to the listeners. Bobby is continuing to compose and release his music via MP3 and privately released CDR's, still looking for another traditional record label to release his music properly. The search for the perfect sound always continues....

Group Members bobby devito -- synths, samplers, drum machines, atari 1040st, coffee maker.

Instruments synths, samplers, drum machines, Atari 1040ST, mac G4

Albums Ambient Excursions, The Art of Analog Diversion, 2001

Press Reviews best experimentalist 1998 Weekly Planet Magazine, 1999 "Jammy" award winner in Florida for best electronic act.

Location miami beach, florida - USA

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