Tim Story (composer)

Last updated
Tim Story
Born1957
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
GenresElectronic, Ambient, Neo-Classical, Minimalist
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, record producer
InstrumentsKeyboards
Years active1980–present
Labels Windham Hill, Hearts of Space, Bureau B, Groenland, Curious Music, Nepenthe, Uniton, Narada
Website www.timstory.com

Timothy Glenn Story is an American composer, musician and producer. Story was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1957. He graduated from the University of Toledo (Ohio) in 1980.

Contents


Music career

From 1981–1986, Story recorded several albums of original electronic/acoustic music, including Threads (1981), In Another Country (1982), Untitled (1984), Three Feet From the Moon (1985), and Wheat and Rust (1987), the latter 4 released on the independent Norwegian label Uniton/Cicada. Untitled and Three Feet From the Moon were subsequently released in Japan on Polydor Records.

These releases eventually caught the attention of Will Ackerman, who released Glass Green (1987) on his Windham Hill Records label in the US. The following year, Story composed the original score for and coproduced the children’s album The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (with actress/narrator Glenn Close) for Rabbit Ears Productions, which was nominated for a Grammy award in the Best Album for Children category in 1989. [1] The subsequent sale of Windham Hill to BMG marked the end of the label’s support of many of Ackerman’s more ‘experimental’ artists (Story, minimalist composer Wim Mertens and others), though Ackerman remained a fan, and continued to invite Story to contribute tracks to Windham Hill’s popular compilation albums. Many of these pieces, and 5 original compositions written for the television documentary In Search of Angels (1994), were eventually compiled and released on Collected (2010).

The 1990s brought the first of three albums for the US-based Hearts of Space label, Beguiled (1991), The Perfect Flaw (1994), and Shadowplay (2001), which introduced classical instruments including cello (Martha Reikow) and oboe (Kimberly Bryden) to his compositions. Like compatriot Harold Budd, another composer of restrained, tonal music, Story's concise, evocative miniatures were sometimes included in the New Age genre, but the composer never felt a kinship with the term, a disconnect that became more apparent with the increasingly experimental nature of collaborations with Dwight Ashley; Persistence of Memory (2001) with Hans-Joachim Roedelius; and Story’s complex, predominantly electronic solo album Buzzle (2006). Instead, elements of musique concrete, electronica and the avant-garde were combining in interesting ways with the innovative sound design and minimalist restraint that had marked Story’s neoclassical ‘ambient chamber’ music.

Discography

Studio albums
YearTitleNotes
1981Threads
  • Atem (France, unreleased) (FGR 16)
  • Re-issued (1992) by Eurock (US) (ECD 2008/CD)
1981In Another Country
  • Dubious Recordings (US) (DC001/Cassette)
  • Uniton (Norway) (U009/LP)
  • Re-issued (1995) by Eurock (US) (ECD 2012/CD)
1984Untitled
  • Uniton (Norway) (U024/LP Cassette)
  • Polydor (Japan) (3112-56/CD LP)
  • Re-issued (1988) by Windham Hill /Lost Lake Arts (US) (WD 0094/CD LP Cass)
1986Three Feet from the Moon
  • Uniton (Norway) (U027/LP Cassette)
  • Teichiku (Japan) (30CP-148/CD)
  • Re-issued (1997) by Eurock (US) (ECD 2014/CD)
1987Wheat and Rust
  • Cicada (Norway) (C008/LP Cassette, CACD 03/CD)
1987Glass Green
1988The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
  • Windham Hill/Rabbit Ears (US) (WD 0711) l
  • Read by Glenn Close; Music composed, arranged and performed by Tim Story
1991Beguiled
1992A Desperate Serenity
  • Multimood (Sweden) (XXXXXX/CD)
  • Dwight Ashley and Tim Story
1994In Search of Angels
  • Windham Hill (US) (11153-2/CD Cass)
  • Music from PBS Special In Search of Angels, includes 4 tracks composed, arranged and performed by Tim Story
1994The Perfect Flaw
  • Hearts of Space (US) (HS11045/CD Cass)
1996Abridged
  • Hearts of Space (US) (HS11066/CD)
  • Includes "drawn by hand", previously unreleased
1997Drop
  • Lektronic Soundscapes (Netherlands) (LS 010/CD)
  • Dwight Ashley and Tim Story
  • Re-issued (2003) by Nepenthe (US) (AMC05003/CD)
2000Persistence of Memory
  • Seventh Chance (US) (AT101/Limited Edition CD)
  • Hans-Joachim Röedelius and Tim Story
2001Shadowplay
  • Hearts of Space (US) (11403-2/CD)
2001Blue Tofu
  • Dubious (US) (DCD20012/CD)
  • Blue Tofu (Andrea Matthews and Tim Story)
2002Lunz
  • Groenland (UK) (CDGRON3/CD)
  • Hans-Joachim Röedelius and Tim Story
  • Re-issued (2003) by Narada (USA) (ECD 2014/CD)
  • Re-issued (2011) by Nepenthe (US) (AMC11028/CD)
2004Lunz Reinterpretations
  • Groenland (UK) (CDGRON16/CD)
  • Hans-Joachim Röedelius and Tim Story and others
  • 2-CD set featuring original CD and CD of remixes
2005Caravan
  • Nepenthe (UK) (AMC05004/CD)
  • Soundtrack to the Motion Picture Caravan
2005Standing+Falling
  • Nepenthe (UK) (AMC05007/CD)
  • Dwight Ashley and Tim Story
2006buzzle
  • Barking Green (UK) (BGM00041/CD)
2008inlandish
  • Groenland (UK) (CDGRON64/CD (US)
  • Highwire (US)
  • Hans-Joachim Röedelius and Tim Story
  • Remastered (2018) by Curious Music (US) (CURIO 6/Limited Edition Vinyl and Digital Release)
2008errata
  • Nepenthe (US) (AMC08019/CD)
  • Dwight Ashley, Hans-Joachim Röedelius and Tim Story (A.R.S.(e) )
2010Collected
  • Nepenthe (US) (AMC10025/CD)
2013Our Room
  • Dubious (US) (DCD20023/CD)
  • Blue Tofu (Andrea Matthews and Tim Story)
2014Snowghost Pieces
  • bureau b Records (Germany) (BB167/CD)
  • Dieter Möebius, Jon Leidecker and Tim Story
2014Lazy Arc
  • Curious Music/Seventh Chance (US) (Limited Edition CD)
  • Hans-Joachim Röedelius and Tim Story
2016The Roedelius Cells
  • Seventh Chance (US) (Limited Edition CD)
  • Hans-Joachim Röedelius and Tim Story
2017Familiar
  • bureau b Records (Germany) (BB224/CD)
  • Dieter Möebius, Jon Leidecker and Tim Story
2019Smudges One: Virga
  • Curious Music (Digital Release only)
2019Lunz 3
  • Groenland (UK) (DAGRON212/Digital Release only)
  • Hans-Joachim Röedelius and Tim Story
2019Smudges 2: Silent Cycles
  • Curious Music
2020Smudges 3: Isola
  • Curious Music (Digital Release only)
Tracks included on compilations

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References

  1. "Tim Story Grammy Page"". grammy.com. 19 November 2019.