Alan Licht

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

American guitarist (born 1968)

title: "Alan Licht" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1968-births", "living-people", "american-experimental-guitarists", "american-male-guitarists", "american-rock-guitarists", "vassar-college-alumni", "drag-city-(record-label)-artists", "guitarists-from-new-jersey", "20th-century-american-guitarists", "20th-century-american-male-musicians", "siltbreeze-records-artists"] description: "American guitarist (born 1968)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Licht" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American guitarist (born 1968) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameAlan Licht
imageAlan Licht, 2025 (cropped).jpg
birth_placeNew Jersey, U.S.
birth_date
death_date
instrumentGuitar
genreAvant-garde, noise rock, pop
years_active1991-current
::

| name = Alan Licht | image = Alan Licht, 2025 (cropped).jpg | caption = | image_size = | birth_name = | alias = | birth_place = New Jersey, U.S. | birth_date = | death_date = | origin = | instrument = Guitar | genre = Avant-garde, noise rock, pop | occupation = | years_active = 1991-current | label = | associated_acts = | website =

Alan Licht (born June 6, 1968) is an American guitarist and composer, whose work combines elements of pop, noise, free jazz and minimalism. He is also a writer and journalist.

Biography

Licht was born in New Jersey in 1968. His earliest musical influences, in the 1970s, were mainstream rock bands like the Bee Gees and Wings—he remarks in an interview with Paris Transatlantic magazine that 'What made me want to play guitar was that painting of Wings in concert in the gatefold of Wings Over America. It looked so exciting... I wanted to be part of it.' Later, in school, he listened to punk and no wave bands like Mission of Burma, Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth. However, his musical trajectory was set when his guitar teacher gave him a copy of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, which would lead to his discovery of other minimalist music. Licht majored in Film Studies at Vassar College in New York. Since the 1980s, he has worked and recorded with the bands Love Child, Run On and The Pacific Ocean and with other avant-garde musicians including Jim O'Rourke, Rudolph Grey, and Loren Mazzacane Connors. He has also recorded several solo albums. Licht participated as drummer 42 in the Boredoms 77 Boadrum performance which occurred on July 7, 2007, at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn, New York.

Musical style

Licht's music draws on a wide range of different styles, from tape-loops, to noisy guitar (sometimes using a prepared instrument), to pure pop music.

Writing

Licht is also a music journalist and writer on minimalist music, and in 2000, he published his first book, An Emotional Memoir of Martha Quinn. In 2007 Rizzoli published his book Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories. In 2021 his book Common Tones: Selected Interviews with Artists and Musicians 1995-2020 was published by Blank Forms Edition.

Discography

Solo

with [[The Blue Humans]]

with [[Jandek]]

  • Glasgow Sunday 2005 (Corwood Industries 2008) (Uncredited on 'Tribal Ether')

with [[Loren Mazzacane Connors]]

with [[Love Child (band)|Love Child]]

with [[Run On (band)|Run On]]

with [[The Pacific Ocean (band)|The Pacific Ocean]]

with [[Aki Onda]]

with [[Lee Ranaldo]] and the Dust

Bibliography

  • {{cite book | last = Cheslow | first = Sharon | others = contributions by Alan Licht, Sharon Cheslow, others | title = Interrobang?! Anthology on Music and Family: Writings and Interviews | publisher = Decomposition | location = San Francisco | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-0-9818706-6-3 }}

  • {{cite book | last = Licht | first = Alan | others = introduction by Jim O'Rourke | title = Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories | publisher = Rizzoli | location = New York | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-8478-2969-9 }}

  • {{cite book | last = Lesser | first = Tom | author-link=Tom Lesser |author2=Alan Licht |author3=Roland Spekle |author3-link=Roland Spekle |author4=Lee Ranaldo |author4-link=Lee Ranaldo |author5=Leah Singer |author5-link=Leah Singer |author6=Sam Durant |author6-link=Sam Durant |author7=Jonas Mekas |author7-link=Jonas Mekas | others = Lea Rekow (contributor) | title = Lee Ranaldo & Leah Singer: Drift | publisher = Plexifilm | location = New York | year = 2006 | isbn = 1-933045-34-5 }}

  • {{cite book | last = Marclay | first = Christian | author-link=Christian Marclay |author2=Douglas Kahn |author2-link=Douglas Kahn |author3=Miwon Kwon |author3-link=Miwon Kwon |author4=Alan Licht | others = edited by Russell Ferguson | title = Christian Marclay | publisher = Steidl Publishing | location = Los Angeles | year = 2003 | isbn = 3-88243-931-9 }}

  • {{cite book | last = Licht | first = Alan | title = An Emotional Memoir of Martha Quinn | publisher = Drag City | location = Chicago | year = 2000 | isbn = 0-9656183-3-1 }}

References

References

  1. "Interview: Licht".
  2. "Lost Interviews: Alan Licht (interview)".
  3. "Perfect Sound Forever".
  4. Drag City 2000. {{ISBN. 0-9656183-3-1

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

1968-birthsliving-peopleamerican-experimental-guitaristsamerican-male-guitaristsamerican-rock-guitaristsvassar-college-alumnidrag-city-(record-label)-artistsguitarists-from-new-jersey20th-century-american-guitarists20th-century-american-male-musicianssiltbreeze-records-artists