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bits and pieces you can build new memories, or imaginary memories. Which is like Imaginary Landscape , where the psychology of human memory becomes its own landscape. That’s what music is at its core.
    Though Cage was not the first to create musique concrète (or tape music, which like sampling, uses prerecorded sounds), pieces such as his Imaginary Landscape No. 5 and Fontana Mix are innovative in their use of collage, which would play a large role in later pieces such as Roaratorio (1979) and his five Europeras (1988-1991). By the time he died, in 1992 at age 80, Cage’s position as the preeminent representative of 20 th -century musical experimentation was secure.

    WORKS
    Imaginary Landscape No. 1, for Two Turntables, Frequency Recordings, Piano and Cymbal (1939) .
    Three Constructions, for Percussion (1939-41) .
    Bacchanale, for Prepared Piano (1940) .
    Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1946-48) .
    Imaginary Landscape No. 4, for 12 Radios (1951) .
    Music of Changes (1951) .
    4’33”, for Any Instruments (1951) .
    Williams Mix, for Tapes (1952).
    Fontana Mix, for Tapes (1958).
    Indeterminancy (1958).
    Cartridge Music, for Amplified “Small Sounds” (1960).
    Music for Amplified Toy Pianos (1960).
    Atlas Eclipticalis (1961).
    HPSCHD, for Amplified Harpsichord and 51 Tapes (1967-68).
    Roaratorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake (1979).
    Europeras 1-5 (1988-91).
    TRIBUTE: Various Artists, A Chance Operation: The John Cage Tribute (Koch, 1993) ; an interesting collection – featuring Frank Zappa, Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, and other avant-garde figures – broken up into small fragments that, when played on a CD player’s “random” mode, itself becomes a chance operation.
    TRIBUTE: Various Artists, Caged / Uncaged (Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1993) ; produced by John Cale , the collection features Cage works interpreted by David Byrne, Lou Reed, Joey Ramone, Blondie, and Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys .

    THEATER OF ETERNAL MUSIC
    (THE DREAM SYNDICATE):
    L a MONTE YOUNG, TONY CONRAD, JOHN CALE
    Tony Conrad:
    The idea in my head was that the music had become so advanced that we didn’t need composers at all. We were dismantling, destroying the Western tradition of composers by sitting in the middle of the music and just playing it.
    Between 1962 and 1966, a group of classically trained experimental musicians and composers came together under the direction of LaMonte Young to create a hypnotic ensemble of endlessly droning sounds they called “dream music.” They were informally called the Dream Syndicate (not to be confused with the ‘80s rock band of the same name), and later officially dubbed the Theater of Eternal Music. The partnership lasted only a short time and pursued a limited agenda, but the group would prove to be among the most significant outside contributors to the sound of modern rock.
    The influence of LaMonte Young’s group on contemporary music is quite direct: It lies almost completely in one band, the Velvet Underground (and to a lesser extent, Faust ), and one musical gesture, the drone. In the past 30 years, however, the Velvets’ drone has inspired and informed countless bands, whether directly or through the many V.U.-influenced bands.
    Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth:
    The “existence” of LaMonte Young was influential. I had no idea what his music sounded like until later, and at that point we were already playing music that was coming out of his lineage anyway. I found it really beautiful, but it didn’t change my world. It had already changed my world through others.
    Young’s earliest musical memory from his Idaho childhood in the ‘30s and ‘40s was the steady hum of an electrical transformer behind his grandfather’s gas station. By his late teens, Young was in L.A. playing saxophone with free jazz experimentalists Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman, studying the serialist composition of Anton Webern, and discovering Indian music. By the late 1950s, Young had