Azure Miles Records ~ The Music of Michael Robinson
Michael Robinson Biography and Quotes
Michael Robinson's compositions combine computer instruments, Indian ragas, and a musical language inspired by American, South Asian and European traditions. He
engenders performances by programming a meruvina
to play his fully notated scores in real time, voicing each work with sound
samples of acoustic instruments from myriad world cultures.
There are 65 CDs available from Azure Miles Records featuring
compositions based on ragas, in addition to 36 CDs featuring earlier music.
Azure Miles CDs may be heard on NPR, Pacifica, college, and community radio
stations, and are in the collections of music libraries including Princeton
University and the University of Hong Kong.
Robinson has given numerous solo concerts in New York
City, Los Angeles, and Hawaii, music-visual performances and installations at
the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and live radio concerts in New York
City and Los Angeles. He has been interviewed numerous times on radio and television
in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles by a host of distinguished
interviewers.
A wide range of
American publications have discussed Robinson's music, including Keyboard, India Abroad, India West, Los Angeles
Times, NewMusicBox, The New York Times, Village Voice, CDeMUSIC, Chinese Community
News, Journal SEAMUS, jazzreview.com, Beverly Hills Weekly, CreativeSynth.com,
and All About Jazz. Publications from South Asia, the Far East, and Europe have
also covered his work. Samplings of quotes are included below.
The composer was awarded the Louis Armstrong Award for jazz improvisation in New York, received six grants from Meet the Composer California, and The City of Pasadena gave him a grant to introduce school children to Indian classical music, world music, and computer music. UCLA's Department of Ethnomusicology received a one-year grant from the National Endowment For The Humanities that enabled them to hire Robinson to transfer fragile field recordings from all over the world onto CDRs.
Robinson has lectured at UCLA and CSDH, and has a series of
interviews with Indian Masters and a jazz
master. His writings
on music have been quoted by Carnegie Hall and MIT publications.
The composer received a BM in Composition from the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam, where he studied composition with Don Funes, Elliot Del Borgo and Arthur Frackenpohl. In conjunction, he studied electronic composition with Bulent Arel at SUNY Stony Brook. This was followed by graduate study with Mel Powell at CalArts. He spent two summers at Tanglewood in the Listening and Analysis Seminar taught by musicologists Leonard Altman and Peter Gram Swing. Altman made special arrangements for Robinson to attend the Composition Seminar taught by Gunther Schuller, Jacob Druckman, Paul Zukofsky, John Chowning and Ralph Shapey. He also attended conducting classes and rehearsals of the Boston Symphony Orchestra given by Leonard Bernstein and other prominent conductors.
Robinson's private studies include Indian classical music with Harihar Rao, Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy, Kala Ramnath and Pandit Jasraj, and jazz improvisation with Lee Konitz. He had private consultations with composers Charles Dodge, David Lewin, Steve Reich (via correspondence), John Cage, Salvatore Martirano, and Morton Feldman.
The composer's unique involvement with Indian ragas is
largely a result of his study of recordings, live performances, and
books, in addition to the studies mentioned above. He is self-taught in his use of the meruvina,
a name he coined for the mixture of hardware and software he works with.
A native New Yorker, who has lived in Maui,
Robinson currently resides in Los Angeles.
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"Robinson's sense of timing, phrasing, form, and flow guide listeners toward his alternative vision. His music has the clarity and ingenuousness of Chinese brush painting, some of the hard geometric edginess of Kandinsky, and a detached, ethereal, and abstract quality that nonetheless seems bound to the tight forms found in some abstract Expressionist paintings." - Keyboard
“Robinson mixes the organic virtues of raga with the synthetic ability of technology.” “Making use of alternative tunings, and blending tradition and technology, Robinson is able to transcend cultural and spiritual boundaries.” – NewMusicBox
"Your recording sounds great. I think there is a big difference between your music, which can have a powerful subjective effect on the listener (i.e., can arouse strong emotions), and John Cage's music, which seems truly detached and therefore without much visceral effect, evidently by his design. (I mention Cage because you seem to share some of his attitudes about the role of ego in art). Some of your pieces have a paradoxical effect on me: on one hand, the music conveys a certain “benign indifference” which I can only liken to the concept of enlightenment as understood by Zen Buddhists. I feel neutrality but not despair. On the other hand, the same piece that creates this sort of transcendental mood also evokes strong emotions." - Peter Jablonski, Transfigured Night radio host, WKCR FM, Columbia University
“Robinson has absorbed the principles and essence(s) of the raga form and uses them as a point of departure for his compositions.” “No mere copycat or cultural/colonial imperialist – he's studied and absorbed the essence and approach of musics of not only India but other Asian cultures as well." "Luminous Realms has shades of “light” and “dark” coursing through it – it’s a truly cerebral, challenging listen though never self-consciously or defiantly difficult." - jazzreview.com
“A fascinating musical odyssey based on Indian Ragas, Jazz, Asian and African influences, computers and mice, to produce vast epic compositions, ... with no musical instrument involved at all.” - The IDEA (India)
"Robinson is one of the individuals currently using the resources of technology and information to create sound combinations which stretch the boundaries of the definition of music. Like the innovators of the past, he leaves behind all previously created forms and has produced something truly fresh and exciting." - Lahaina News
“Michael has created a really personal and compelling body of work that serves as an antidote to superficial cultural plunder. He’s done such a good job and created such a believable audio world that it’s not only satisfying, but makes you wonder about what might be next… music that makes you want to make music, so to speak.” - Gregory Taylor, RTQE FM, Cycling '74, CreativeSynth.com
"Strictly based on the structural underpinnings of the raga commemorating the monsoon rains, Michael Robinson’s Mian Ki Malhar encompasses a profoundly spacious quality." "By the half way point of “Vilambit, Madhya & Drut Gats,” the music has already swelled to a frenzy that is marvelously sustained until the end of the disc. As with all of Robinson’s releases the unique packaging, in this case a vividly colored silk-screened pattern on handmade Japanese paper, is equally exquisite as the music contained on the CD." - NewMusicBox
“You have been blessed with genius.” - Kitty
Pilgrim, author, award-winning television journalist, Council On Foreign Relations member
“A west-coast live-electronics composer of wild imagination.” “He's an original.” - Village Voice
"You are a creative genius." "You are royalty." - Jarvee E. Hutcherson, President, Multicultural Motion Picture Association
“He's a genius.” “He deserves to win a Grammy Award.” - Clive Fox, former President, MGM Records (Included Verve)
“Robinson is following an iconoclastic path much like Schoenberg and Cage before him.” - Gardena Valley News
"A true musical genius" - Rollan Masciarelli, distinguished music educator, musician and arranger
"The full genius of your music has flowered" - Joanne Cheng, award-winning documentary film maker
"A modern update to the ancient tradition of North Indian classical music." "Robinson stands at the crossroads between new tools and traditional forms.” "His highly stylized approach renders irrelevant any simple comparisons to North Indian classical music." - All About Jazz
“It's more than the sounds, though. It's the textures that are so beautiful and pleasing. And Robinson's general sense of rhythm suggests that this music can continue forever in its lovely world.” “The recording quality of Azure Miles CDs is always beautiful.” - CDeMUSIC
"Cosmic rituals." "Very dynamic but also
very hypnotic." "He has spread stylistic boundaries further than most
would ever dream." - Margen (Spain)
"The main thing is that his music is a definite grower. I've listened to the whole album several times at different times of the day and found myself increasingly drawn to the creativity that creates spaces that are quite unique to this composer." - electronicmusic.com
"Extremely evocative" "Elegant, powerful sonic texture" - Splendid-Ezine
“I believe that future composers will be influenced
by his innovations.” – Charlie Colin, renowned trumpet and brass teacher,
author, publisher, and performer
"You are reaching into the core of the spirit of
Indian classical music, which is a spiritual yearning." - Harihar Rao,
senior disciple of Ravi Shankar, President and Artistic Director, The Music
Circle
"Your music has lowered my blood pressure by miles." "It's very, very beautiful." - Susan McClary, Chair, Musicology, UCLA, MacArthur Fellowship recipient
"He has amazing success in bringing to life music performed by a computer." - Dean Suzuki, KPFA-FM, contemporary music history professor, SFSU
"A composer of the modern age." "Robinson
has carved out a niche in the music world." "His music is most distinctive."
- Los Angeles Times
"A renowned composer whose music is a refreshing
alternative to traditional Indian classical music." “He probably knows
as much about improvisation as anyone.” - Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy, President,
Society for Ethnomusicology, founder of UCLA Ethnomusicology Department, renowned
Indian classical music scholar
"His compositions are rich in musical ideas." "Robinson is a composer with a vision." - Journal SEAMUS
"Great stuff!" "Swings good!" "Meditative in the slow parts, and groovin' in the parts with percussion." - Lee Konitz, legendary alto saxophonist
"Amazing music." "I love this piece." "Wow! You're great." - Halimah Collingwood, world music host, KHLU FM
“Michael Robinson makes great music.” “His knowledge is very deep.” - Pandit Jasraj, legendary North Indian classical vocalist, known as "The glorious sun of music"
"Michael Robinson is one of my favorite composers." - Martin Perlich, author, classical music host, KCSN-FM, KUSC-FM
"Sound pours forth in a dazzling array of timbres and audio textures" "Music with its own endless source of complexity and variety" - Westwood News
"Considerable energy." "Unusual variation."
- The New York Times
"I love listening to Robinson's music." - Ali
Ahmad Hussain, renowned shehnai artist
"Ingenious composition." "Exciting and
innovative." - The Occidental (Occidental College)
"Your music is so beautiful." "I'm curious
to know how you do it!" - Liona Boyd, renowned classical guitarist
"Excellent music." "Very cool." - Ray Manzarek, keyboardist, the Doors, later collaborated on several music projects with Robinson
"He has taken Indian classical music to a new dimension." - Amy Catlin, visiting ethnomusicology professor, UCLA
"That's [Fire Monkey CD] very good. Whatever it is you're doing, keep it up!" - Salvatore Martirano, computer music pioneer
"You are the Prince of Ragas" - Ginger, dancer and yogi
"If you have a performance with dance, please let me know; I would enjoy hearing it in a situation involving movement." - John Cage, avant-garde music pioneer, original, and long-time music director, Merce Cunningham Dance Company