Paul Lansky
(1944) is one of the pioneers of computer music.  Most of his electronic works are available on recording, largely on Bridge Records and have been played and broadcast widely. In 2002 he was the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from SEAMUS (Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States) and in 2000 he was the subject of a documentary made for the European television ARTE network, My Cinema for the Ears, directed by Uli Aumueller and now available on DVD.  A number of dance companies have choreographed his works, including Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, Alvin Ailey II, and the Eliot Feld and New York City Ballets. 
In recent years he has been increasingly turning his attention to instrumental music. Recent works include ‚Ricercare Plus‘ for string quartet; ‚With the Grain‘, a guitar concerto written for David Starobin; ‚Etudes and Parodies‘ (horn violin and piano) for Bill Purvis (winner of the 2005 International Horn Society competition) and ‚Threads‘, written for S? Percussion.  He is currently composer in residence with the Alabama Symphony.  He is now completing Imaginary Islands, commissioned, and to be premiered by that group in May 2010. 
paullansky.org

Now and Then
MP3

Common wisdom has it that it is never too soon to read to children. Even before they can speak they enjoy the regular, soothing patterns of speech – it must be a kind of music to them.  We regularly read to our children and ‚Now and Then‘ is a musical encapsulation of the sound of this activity.  Here my wife, Hannah MacKay, reads several dozen phrases, all typically found in many children’s stories, and all of which refer to time – hence the title of the piece.  They thus form a kind of story with no content, merely the chronological underpinnings of one. I supply musical continuity and decoration (using the sounds of my children playing in the kitchen) and our memories of the sound of this special kind of speech-music take care of the rest.