Glenn Branca's Aural Epiphanies

The late Glenn Branca came to fame with symphonies of electric guitars played with mallets, turned to such incredible volumes as to produce a kind of sensory assault designed to create altered states of consciousness in his audiences. He also wrote for orchestra, and those works were still nearly as confrontational. Steve Seel features one such work on this week’s program, as well as music by Bryce Dessner, Peteris Vasks, and others. 

Steve Seel possesses a broad knowledge of many musical genres, having hosted radio programs ranging from classical to jazz and even avant-garde music at public radio stations around the country. Steve came to Minnesota Public Radio in 1999 to be a part of its nationally-syndicated classical music programming. In 2005, he became one of the founding voices on MPR's eclectic station The Current, and has hosted various time slots from mornings to late nights, and conducted in-depth interviews with pop music luminaries ranging from Brian Eno to David Byrne to Tori Amos. 
 
Steve is an avid reader of political and social commentary as well, and he emcees The Current's popular Policy and a Pint community series, featuring discussions with noted scholars, politicians, community leaders, authors and big thinkers on important issues of the day. Steve is also a basement composer obsessed with all things both minimalist and slow, and might actually be incapable of writing anything that exceeds 75 beats-per-minute.
