David Shea
Manhattan-based composer David Shea is closely associated with the New York Downtown experimental music scene, which includes collaborators such as John Zorn, Anthony Coleman, Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, and Bill Laswell. A sonic architect utilizing samplers, turntables, drum machines, and sequencers in complex amalgamations of genre and cultural reference, Shea is apt to move from probing electro-acoustics to Chinese traditional music, American pop, Latin jazz, and exotica in the space of a single piece. The bulk of his work appearing under his own name has been released through Zorn-related labels such as Tzadik and Avant, as well as through Belgian experimental music label Sub Rosa. Employing compositional methods forged from early electronic experimentalists such as Iannis Xenakis, Morton Feldman, Gyorgi Ligeti, and John Cage, Shea also adds more modern techniques of digital sound design and manipulation, cutting the combination with a wide palette of historical and cultural influence. A practicing Buddhist, Shea's odd fusion of East and West (particularly on albums such as Hsi-Yu Chi and Tower of Mirrors) is partly a function of the expressive role Eastern cultures have played in his own musical and cultural development. Shea's facility for fusing not only the spiritual but also the pop cultural elements of Eastern cultures (Hong Kong cinema, allegorical Chinese theater, etc.) is accomplished and critically renowned.
Although Shea's early work was more readily assimilated with other sequencer- and sampler-based post-classical composers (such as Ikue Mori and John Oswald), combining raw elements derived from existing recordings in order to suggest various lines of connection, Shea has more recently broadened his approach to an increasingly compositional role. This has generally involved a bit more discretion in the use of samples, as well as a more mutational approach to their application (digital manipulation, effects, etc.). Shea has also found a growing audience in the more experimental strains of the post-industrial/post-rave ambient and electronic music set, having collaborated both live and in the studio with artists such as Robin Rimbaud (Scanner), Robert Hampson (Main), Tobias Hazan, David Morley, and DJ Grazhoppa. Shea also continues to bridge gaps separating his various audiences by performing at events and contributing to projects that engage both in equal measure.
© Sean Cooper /TiVo
Discography
12 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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The Thousand Buddha Caves
Experimental - Released by Room 40 on 19 Mar 2021
Available in24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
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The Tower of Mirrors
Alternative & Indie - Released by Sub rosa on 1 Jan 1996
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
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Classical Works
Alternative & Indie - Released by Tzadik on 17 Nov 1998
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Classical Works II
Alternative & Indie - Released by Tzadik on 27 Aug 2002
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
The Book of Rituals
David Shea, Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven
Jazz - Released by Musicube on 14 Sep 2020
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
The Book of Rituals
David Shea, Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven
Classical - Released by SOOND on 14 Sep 2020
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -