Jill Fraser
Jill is a composer and electronic music pioneer. She was mentored by Morton Subotnick, studied with Mel Powell and Earle Brown at CalArts and attended master classes with, among others John Cage and Lou Harrison. After finishing her master’s degree in composition Jill is a composer and electronic music pioneer. She was mentored by Morton Subotnick, studied with Mel Powell and Earle Brown at CalArts and attended master classes with, among others John Cage and Lou Harrison. After finishing her master’s degree in composition she worked at Serge Modular in Hollywood and took her modular synths into the Hollywood studios to score films. Her composing credits on film scores include Personal Best directed by Robert Towne with collaborator, the infamous composer Jack Nitzsche and Hardcore (starring George C Scott, directed by Paul Schrader).
Jill has composed both electronic and acoustic music for hundreds of TV commercials for Lexus, BMW, Honda, Porsche, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Mattel, Carl’s Jr, NBC, Apple Computers, Adidas, Estee Lauder, Baskin Robbins, Yamaha Motorcycles and many, many others. She has won 3 Clios for original music and is a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
She toured playing live modular synthesizerwith singer Buffy Sainte Marie and performance artist Ivan E Roth. Her performances with Ivan were part of the vibrant Los Angeles punk and spoken word scene opening for acts including the Minutemen and Henry Rollins. Ivan and Jill released the CD Alphabetical Disorders on Periodic Music featuring “Life is a Noun”.she worked at Serge Modular in Hollywood and took her modular synths into the Hollywood studios to score films. Her composing credits on film scores include Personal Best directed by Robert Towne with collaborator, the infamous composer Jack Nitzsche and Hardcore (starring George C Scott, directed by Paul Schrader).
Jill has composed both electronic and acoustic music for hundreds of TV commercials for Lexus, BMW, Honda, Porsche, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Mattel, Carl’s Jr, NBC, Apple Computers, Adidas, Estee Lauder, Baskin Robbins, Yamaha Motorcycles and many, many others. She has won 3 Clios for original music and is a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
She toured playing live modular synthesizer with singer Buffy Sainte Marie and performance artist Ivan E Roth. Her performances with Ivan were part of the vibrant Los Angeles punk and spoken word scene opening for acts including the Minutemen and Henry Rollins. Ivan and Jill released the CD Alphabetical Disorders on Periodic Music featuring “Life is a Noun”.
Recently Jill performed at the Santa Fe Currents festival, the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival with re:VOLT with Peter Grenader and Thomas Klepper and SoCal Synth Society and is working on a new album “Earthly Pleasures” based on the reimagining of late 19th century hymns. Release expected spring 2024 on Drag City Records.
Listen to Jill Fraser on Art+Music+Technology Podcast with Darwin Grosse
Peter Grenader
Peter studied music composition at the California Institute of the Arts under the influence of Barry Schrader and Morton Subotnick.
Grenader’s Electrolux won the Periòdic Experimental Music Festival in Barcelona, Spain. Other appearances include an performance at the SEAMUS National Conference, the University of North Texas, California Institute of the Arts, Stony Brook University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, University of Texas at Austin, Georgia State University’s Pulse Field, the Florida Electro-Acoustic Music Festival and the 2003 Electric Rainbow Coalition Festival at Dartmouth. Further palmares include The Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, Holland and GMEB in Bourges, France, two wins at the Virginia Commonwealth University Music Festival and three performances at the Los Angeles Sonic Odyssey.
He was a featured composer at the 17th American Composer’s Forum Salon in Venice. Grenader served as a panel speaker at TapeOpCon and performed at REDCAT in Los Angeles with Analoglive! with film composer Gary Chang, Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Alessandro Cortini, Richard Devine, composer and instrument designer Chas Smith, Thighpaulsandra (of Coil and Spiritualized), and video artist Paul Tzanetopoulos. Other recent ensemble performances include zZyzx Society with Jill Fraser and The Third Ear with Shiro Fujioka and Doug Lynner.
More recently, as part of the live electronic ensemble re:VOLT along with Jill Fraser and Thomas Klepper, Grenader was commissioned a live performance of Morton Subotnick’s seminal work Sidewinder, which was premiered at the Roulette in Brooklyn and had a second performance at the Lab at the 2023 San Fransisco Electronic Music Festival.
Grenader’s discography includes: Secret Life (2013) on Coda Recordings, zZyzx Society with Jill Fraser featuring Danny Carey, Chas Smith and Thighpaulsandra (2018), Patch CV Two (2018), Tool’s Fear Inoculum (2019) on RCA Records and two albums with POV with Miles Richmond and Steve Roach (2019/2020) on Roach’s Timeroom Records.
Grenader was featured on David Elliot’s 2018 synthesis documentary series Patch CV: Controlling Voltage. For the past 12 years he has served as the instrument and sound designer for the progressive metal band Tool. A past member of the SEAMUS board of directors, he is the founder of EAR/Plan B Synthesizers and their primary designer.
Listen to Peter Grenader on Art+Music+Technology Podcast with Darwin Grosse