Praise for R.S. Pearson's Music

"If you're a fan of hypnotic modality and mesmerizing synthesized sound, R.S. Pearson's music is for you! Each piece is an exploration of intuition, development, and transition." Amy Denio, Composer.

"I think 'Large Cortical Areas' is your best piece I have heard so far, and an outstanding (as well as a solid candidate for "Classic") one to boot. For me, the piece excels where most rhythmic yet drummer/drum machine-less electronic music flounders. The steady though off-kilter rhythm keeps the listener listening and doesn't seem too keyboardy, by which I mean keys triggering sounds with identical attacks, sustains and decays, the great bane of poorly programmed synths (pianos of course have far more variety). Christopher DeLaurenti (Composer).

"One evening, while Pearson and I were watching animated films by Larry Jordan, I turned the sound off and replaced it with random selections of Pearson's recorded work. It was uncanny how perfectly the music fit with the films. I knew they would, because from the first moment I heard Pearson's music, I thought of Jordan's films." Dale Lloyd (Composer, Lucid, After the Flood, Field Recording artist).

"It is very rare that manipulation and control of synthesized sound has the depth and vibrancy that I hear in R.S. Pearson's music. His recent live sets have been a real treat and I sincerely look forward to his new CD releases." Vance Galloway (Composer, Engineer, Member of Elders of Zion).

Robert (R.S.) Pearson is a Seattle-based writer, philosopher and composer who has released a number of independent cassettes starting with Joseph Cornell's Television Show (1984), when he was part of Seattle's industrial scene.

After abstract recordings such as The Manhattan of Heaven (1985) and Cartoon Wheel (1985), he abandoned music for a while. When he returned, he focused on melodic electronic improvisation: Silver Sister Hippie Fields (Regenerative, 2000), Eleven London Bridges (Regenerative, 2000), External Omnipotent Moments (2001), Enchantment Born of Grace (2002), Antiquity (Oars, 2002), Purple Martin Morning (2003).

Antiquity (Oars, 2002) contains instrumental Brian Eno-esque vignettes. Pearson employs a "watery" style that creates a neutral atmosphere. The best moments (such as World's Tiled Fountain and Figuring Out A Mixed Blessing) are fibrillating structures that indulge in geometric patterns.

Piero Scaruffi

http://www.scaruffi.com/avant/pearson.html

From a R. S. Pearson -- NAKED INDEX review: Pearson comes from a musical school of thought i'm increasingly inclined to think of as "experimental exotica": he's too skittery and "out there" for traditional listeners, but not quite academic enough for classical experimentalism or defiantly antimelodic enough for free jazz. I hear a lot of bands lately onto this wave o' sound minus all the baggage (particularly on Public Eyesore), and they all seem to be more interested in the sounds they're making and the mutant methods of making them than they are about wiggly li'l details like structure, togetherness, and the like. What you end up with is largely free-form, chaotic explorations in wild sound that Ornette Coleman would get behind. Pearson isn't quite that free-form, but he does share the same fascination for employing odd sounds and mystically-tuned instruments for the building blocks of his sound. The subsequent songs are largely like kinetic sound sculptures set in motion, going heavy on the vibraphone (???) sounds -- lots of tweeting high end, that's for sure. Mostly they sound like those old fifties exotica albums -- you know, the records that came with stereos "for demonstration purposes" and the ones with the half-naked chicks on the cover with titles like ON THE ZULU LAKES OF PARADISE: A SAMPLER OF WEST INDIAN TIMPANI INSTRUMENTALS -- only run through lots of modern efx and subjected to postmodernist manhandling. Regardless of the origin, these are swell sounds and i like them. Pearson is on to something here.

Speaking of timpani, that just might be what's playing so insistently on "Poundthoughts," or maybe bongos, sounding like the truly boss instrumental theme to a forgotten fifties jungle serial. Moments like this make you realize that however Pearson got into the funny-noise-making business, it probably wasn't from reading about it in textbooks. There's a really nice drone happening in "The Night Boat" -- the off-kilter percussion behind it is so unobtrusive that you might be forgiven for missing it -- and the Floating Toy Pianos of Doom make a reapparance on "After the Quench," but mainly the songs are fixated most of the time more on the exotica tones and tinky sounds than they are on evolving structures. The grotesque electric organ on "Again We End Time" is totally a boss move, though. Still, there's plenty of action happening here -- well worth checking out...."

From the "Dead Angel" Experimental music webzine, regarding a CD of music from 1985 that Pearson just re-released in 2001.

One of Pearson's works was selected for Ian Edgewater's anniversary show, during which Edgewater, who plays exclusively excellent modern classical and experimental music, specially picked 100 short works.

Pearson's music has also been played on other modern classical radio programs, including Kalvos and Damians.