The San Francisco Tape Music Center

This book tells the story of the influential group of creative artists--Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnik, Ramon Sender, Bill Maginnis, Tony Martin, and others--who connected music to technology during a legendary era in California art. An integral part of the robust San Francisco arts scene, The San Francisco Tape Music Center developed new art forms combining acoustic and electro-acoustic music, light projections, free improvisation, modern dance, and theater through their collaborations with such artists as Terry Riley, Steve Reich, David Tudor, Ken Dewey, Lee Breuer, the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Ann Halperin's Dancers' Workshop, and Canyon Cinema. Told through vivid personal accounts by key participants, interviews, and retrospective essays by leading scholars and artists, this work, capturing the rich, heady artistic milieu of the sixties, is the first comprehensive history of The San Francisco Tape Music Center. Featuring photographs, illustrations, and a selection of performances on DVD, it provides compelling documentation of the Tape Music Center's rich artistic legacy as it explores the dynamic interplay between the avant-garde and the counterculture that emerged in San Francisco's free-thinking cultural environment.