Selected Biographical Information
Thurston’s current work is in the peerless field of speculative spectralism - a conceptual framework through which uncanny acoustic spaces are synthesized via networks of precisely-tuned, digitally-generated feedback and phase modulation. Additional feedback paths are created by human musicians performing within, and reacting to, these conjured spaces. Bespoke pitch sets picked from far-flung reaches of the harmonic series combine in sonorities that ricochet and fold over each other.
Speculative spectralism is not ambient music, nor is it cybernetic - it is alive, and the composer is active in its creation and performance. Thurston’s aim is to stimulate and transport the creator/listener from their current mental and physical plane.
Thurston’s lifelong study of classical piano has run parallel to his work as a recording artist, touring musician, bandleader, and media composer. At age 17, his first band released their debut record, which kicked off a (persisting) love of DIY recording and record production1. Touring followed - performances in 19 countries, 40 US states, and countless cities as collaborator and bandleader in a wide-spectrum of projects obscure to most, beloved by some2. (See live history.)
After moving from Southern California to Chicago in 2005, Thurston3 began teaching piano, music theory, and composition - a practice that continues today. He led his own art rock group, Magical Beautiful, joined underground minimalist prog legends Ga’an, and toured extensively with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Head of Femur, and Axis:Sova. Thurston extended the Ga’an thread with Night Terror, a solo electronic project exploring French prog and Italian film scores of the 70s.
Through Night Terror, he was hired to compose three scores: chamber jazz for the experimental film Uzi’s Party (Lyra Hill; 2014), contemporary horror/pompous intrigue for black comedy Neighborhood Food Drive (Jerzy Rose; 2017), and more scary synths for The Eye (2023).
A move back to California in 2016 led to studying at California Institute of the Arts, where Thurston earned a BFA in composition, and MFA in the performer-composer program. He studied composition with Eyvind Kang, Ulrich Krieger, Michael Jon Fink and Nicholas Deyoe, and piano with Vicki Ray and Jack Dettling. He also studied piano and composition with Milen Kirov at LACC.
His work owes a debt to: Eliane Radigue, Cecil Taylor, Harmonia, politically-charged 90's west coast hardcore, Tristan Murail, Tori Amos, Lee Perry, Claude Debussy, Hindustani traditions, Alice Coltrane, Anton Webern, Bill Evans, Gérard Grisey, Joe Meek, Alexander Scriabin, Emahoy Tsegue Maryam Gebrou, Tōru Takemitsu, Can, and John Luther Adams.
FOOTNOTES:
1. A selection of Thurston’s recorded output can be found on discogs and bandcamp.)
2. See live history.
3. From 2005-2014, Thurston was credited under the names T. Thurston, Tyson Torstensen (Norwegian patronym), or on occassion, Bobby Teenager.