Biography
Jordan Stenberg, recording and performing under the name Jordan De La Sierra, stands among the earliest figures to shape the sound later branded new age, even though his compositions emerged well before that commercial category existed. Raised in California’s San Joaquin Valley, he balanced childhood immersion in classical voice and piano with equal enthusiasm for basketball and films. At fifteen he and his pop group issued their debut single, “The Voice in the Wind” b/w “Every Time It Rains,” on Hollywood’s Joli label.
Two years later he presented his first classical vocal recital, singing in English, Spanish, German, and Italian, which earned him a full scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. There he absorbed the standard repertoire while also investigating experimental composers—Erik Satie, whose music remained a lifelong touchstone, along with John Cage, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, and Robert Ashley—performing their pieces in student ensembles and beginning to develop his own distinctive approach to song forms. After graduation he joined a loose collective that converted an empty warehouse in San Francisco’s Mission District into Project Artaud, hosting dancers, musicians, and light shows designed by Daniel Conrad.
In 1969 De La Sierra encountered Terry Riley, who became both instructor and guide; Riley included him in a three-year course of study with Hindustani vocalist Pandit Pran Nath of the Kirana Gharana tradition, whose ideas about just intonation would shape the work of Riley and LaMonte Young. Out of that period came De La Sierra’s first extended composition, Music in Bong, one movement of which—“Seahorse Butterfly Cuckoo Bee Swan Zebra Owl”—received a 1972 broadcast on KPFA. Three years afterward he arrived unannounced at the station during Stephen Hill’s Hearts of Space program and requested an on-air performance; already acquainted with his music, Hill consented.
De La Sierra’s central work, Gymnosphere: Song of the Rose, was captured in a modest San Francisco studio with Hill producing. Once the five-and-a-half-hour live recording concluded, the tapes were transported to Grace Cathedral, where the music was played back against the vast stone interior and a small team of engineers documented the resulting natural reverberations. The resulting double album appeared on the independent Unity label in 1977, accompanied by a booklet containing the composer’s India-inspired drawings and reflections. Setting minimalism aside for a time, he concentrated on songwriting and led the Jemstone Band from 1980 through 1984. He resumed his post-classical idiom with the more conventionally new-age Valentine Eleven, released by Global Pacific in 1988 as the genre entered its commercial ascent. A subsequent album, Nature House, was tracked for the same label in 1990 but remained unreleased after financial difficulties shuttered the company. Earlier, in 1974, he had contributed to the Diga Rhythm Band album alongside the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart.
In 2014 the Numero Group issued a deluxe reissue of Gymnosphere: Song of the Rose, produced in consultation with the composer and Hill; the edition restored both the remastered audio and De La Sierra’s original artwork.
Two years later he presented his first classical vocal recital, singing in English, Spanish, German, and Italian, which earned him a full scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. There he absorbed the standard repertoire while also investigating experimental composers—Erik Satie, whose music remained a lifelong touchstone, along with John Cage, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, and Robert Ashley—performing their pieces in student ensembles and beginning to develop his own distinctive approach to song forms. After graduation he joined a loose collective that converted an empty warehouse in San Francisco’s Mission District into Project Artaud, hosting dancers, musicians, and light shows designed by Daniel Conrad.
In 1969 De La Sierra encountered Terry Riley, who became both instructor and guide; Riley included him in a three-year course of study with Hindustani vocalist Pandit Pran Nath of the Kirana Gharana tradition, whose ideas about just intonation would shape the work of Riley and LaMonte Young. Out of that period came De La Sierra’s first extended composition, Music in Bong, one movement of which—“Seahorse Butterfly Cuckoo Bee Swan Zebra Owl”—received a 1972 broadcast on KPFA. Three years afterward he arrived unannounced at the station during Stephen Hill’s Hearts of Space program and requested an on-air performance; already acquainted with his music, Hill consented.
De La Sierra’s central work, Gymnosphere: Song of the Rose, was captured in a modest San Francisco studio with Hill producing. Once the five-and-a-half-hour live recording concluded, the tapes were transported to Grace Cathedral, where the music was played back against the vast stone interior and a small team of engineers documented the resulting natural reverberations. The resulting double album appeared on the independent Unity label in 1977, accompanied by a booklet containing the composer’s India-inspired drawings and reflections. Setting minimalism aside for a time, he concentrated on songwriting and led the Jemstone Band from 1980 through 1984. He resumed his post-classical idiom with the more conventionally new-age Valentine Eleven, released by Global Pacific in 1988 as the genre entered its commercial ascent. A subsequent album, Nature House, was tracked for the same label in 1990 but remained unreleased after financial difficulties shuttered the company. Earlier, in 1974, he had contributed to the Diga Rhythm Band album alongside the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart.
In 2014 the Numero Group issued a deluxe reissue of Gymnosphere: Song of the Rose, produced in consultation with the composer and Hill; the edition restored both the remastered audio and De La Sierra’s original artwork.
Albums
