For Tony Conrad

The experimental composer, musician, artist, and filmmaker died on April 9th, at the age of seventy-six. He was to have attended the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville two weekends ago — the above picture is of a performance of Outside the Dream Syndicate by the band Faust, Laurie Anderson, and Conrad's drone musicians  — but the onset of pneumonia forced him to withdraw. Geeta Dayal has a comprehensive obituary of this singular and irreplaceable figure. See also reflections by Brandon Stosuy and Seth Colter Walls. My column on Big Ears, with a closing comment about Conrad, will be out next week.