Alan Licht

Alan Licht's career stands as a genuine case where the claim of defying easy labels holds up without exaggeration. The guitarist has moved through noise rock, alternative pop and rock, free improvisation, jazz, minimal composition, musique concrète, and electronic work, among other idioms, while remaining unbound to any single approach, his direction remaining unusually open within current music.

Born in New Jersey on June 6, 1968, Licht grew up hearing opera and show tunes at home. He took no notice of rock until 1978, when a television appearance by Shaun Cassidy altered his view of popular music. The gatefold painting of Paul McCartney and Wings performing on Wings Over America prompted him to take up guitar lessons. During his teenage years his listening progressed from classic rock to the Velvet Underground, then to a range of punk and new wave artists that included the New York Dolls, the Clash, Mission of Burma, and Public Image Ltd. Reviews of Cecil Taylor and late-period John Coltrane recordings led him toward avant-garde jazz; a copy of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, lent by his guitar teacher, redirected his thinking toward serial techniques and sustained drone patterns. He later explored La Monte Young’s work, locating scarce documents of the Theater of Eternal Music.

After high school Licht enrolled at Vassar to study film and performed with several ironic punk groups, having previously played in a high-school cover band. In 1987 he started Love Child alongside Will Baum and Rebecca Odes, blending his exploratory leanings with post-punk alternative rock. The band’s debut album, Okay?, appeared in 1991. By then Licht had also begun working with experimental guitarist Rudolph Grey; in 1993, the year Love Child issued its final album Witchcraft, he first appeared with Grey’s group the Blue Humans, whose music reflected free jazz and the downtown no wave milieu. He next joined Run On, whose material offered a more straightforward setting for his playing; his first recording with the band was the 1995 EP On/Off, followed by two full-length albums. For a short time he also toured as guitarist with Arthur Lee, formerly of Love, though prior obligations and Lee’s gun-related arrest ended the arrangement quickly.

Licht’s solo guitar pieces had surfaced on scattered compilations and self-released 7-inch singles in the early 1990s. His first solo album, Sink the Aging Process, came out in 1994 and contained two long pieces, one a minimalist reworking of the Minutemen’s “Polarity.” Since that release he has issued a continuing series of solo recordings and collaborations with Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino, Loren Connors, Aki Onda, and Oren Ambarchi. He has performed and recorded with Text of Light, an ensemble that scores films by Stan Brakhage and also includes DJ Olive, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, and free jazz drummer William Hooker. In 2007 Licht took part in the all-star project Nothing Makes Any Sense with Nels Cline, Lee Ranaldo, and Carlos Giffoni. Family Vineyard issued Everydays, his collaboration with Aki Onda, in 2008, followed by the solo album YMCA in 2009 and Into the Night Sky, recorded with Connors, in 2010.

Editions Mego released Licht’s solo album Four Years Older in 2013. That same year he joined Lee Ranaldo & the Dust, whose debut, Last Night on Earth, appeared on Matador. Subsequent collaborative releases included We Thought We Could Do Anything with Brian Chase, Lost City with Onda and Connors, Skip to the Solo with Henry Kaiser, and the solo acoustic album Currents. Under the name Licht-Akiyama Trios, Licht recorded with Tetuzi Akiyama, Ambarchi, and Rob Mazurek; Editions Mego issued their CD Tomorrow Outside Tomorrow in 2016. Outside music, Licht has written extensively for The Wire and Halana and has produced sound installations shown at prominent galleries worldwide.