Minimalist composer, film maker, visual artist,
and tennis player Harley Gaber died last week in Gallup, New
Mexico. Gaber committed suicide on 16 June, two weeks after the
release of his final album, In Memoriam. He was born in
Chicago in 1943.
As well as various musical and artistic projects, Gaber also
played tennis, pool, and was captain of his high school football
team. In 1977, Gaber gave up composing to move to California and
play tennis. When an injury threatened his game, friend Bill
Hellerman says that Gaber learnt to play with the other arm. Around
this time he also began to take prescription drugs, to increase his
concentration and reduce the amount of sleep he needed.
In 2010, Gaber was physically and mentally burnt-out, and found
himself unable to sleep, the result of his ever-increasing
obsessional projects. Innova's Philip Blackburn, a friend of
Gaber's, says that it was this point Gaber began to sort out his
affairs. He organised his belongings, sent them out to friends, and
paid for his domain name for the next ten years.
Gaber then received a grant from close friends the Epstein
family, in the form of a commission from the Dan J Epstein Family
Foundation, with which Gaber was able to compose and record In
Memoriam 2010, dedicated to Nancy Epstein.
In the final years of his life Gaber released four albums: I
Saw My Mother Ascending Mt Fuji in 2009, and in 2010,
Sovereign Of The Centre and The Realm Of Indra’s
Net. In Memoriam 2010 was released two weeks before
Gaber committed suicide.
Blackburn says: "Harley had entertained thoughts of suicide for
years but the race was now between that and his spiraling physical
condition. With everything wrapped up and no obvious prospects
ahead, the former won out on June 16.
"Harley’s final work served as his own swan song; a facing up to
the end of thought, a reconciliation with death, and the continuing
cycles of destruction and re-ordering… Like himself and all his
works, the surface simplicity belies the rich world of ideas and
emotion beneath.
"Harley’s life and art were one; he and his music shared the
same complex personality, uncompromised by marketing concerns or
wanting to fit into any scene. His music has a small cult following
because it anticipated some trends that happened decades later in
the new music orthodoxy, but it is the high level of
perfectly-realised thoughts in sound, that could only have sprung
from his fragile life of outsider-dom, that ensures his stature as
one of America’s most important artists. I will miss his voice on
the phone but know that it’s all there in his music."
Gaber's archival website is available here.
