Dan Abrams
[Shuttle 358]



Dan Abrams is among a new wave of artists bringing the aesthetic sensibilities of digital technologies to bear upon the styles of environmental space music first explored by the likes of Brian Eno, David Parsons, Michael Stearns, and Robert Rich. Abrams began making music as a teenager on his apple before getting deeper into the capabilities of software synthesis in the mid-'90s. Although he had no intention of ever releasing his music, Abrams sent a demo off to the new york-based 12k label after learning about the label through its web site. 12k's Taylor Duepree (a designer and musician recording under the names Human Mesh Dance and Prototype 909, among others) quickly added a track of Abrams' to a limited-releases label-sampler called .aiff (released in mid-'99), and then issued Abrams' Optimal.lp a few months later. (Abrams, still a student of product design at Los Angeles' Art Center School of Design when .aiff was released, also designed the compilation's Laser-cut Mylar, floppy-disc-resembling packaging.) Optimal.lp was quickly lauded for its elegant combination of simple melodic environments with subtly challenging digital experiments, with comparisons to the work of Eno and Global Communication proving as often, and appropriate, as those to Oval or Ryoji Ikeda.

1999 Shuttle 358 - Optima.lp - 12k
2000 Shuttle 358 - Frame - 12k
2001 Dan Abrams - Stream - Mille Plateaux
2002 Shuttle 358 - Understanding Wildlife - Mille Plateaux
2004 Shuttle 358 - Chessa - 12k
2007 Shuttle 358 - Frame - 12k