In terms of musical architecture its hard to imagine what our record collections would look like without the first two albums by Glenn Branca Lesson No.1
and The Ascension
. Glenn Branca is an extremely influential avant-garde composer who's experimental roots in the No Wave
band The Theoretical Girls
formed in 1977 with friend and producer Wharton Teirs laid the foundation for No Wave bands in New York City in the late seventies and the 1980's post-punk noise rock to follow. Forming his first avant-garde experimental guitar orchestra in the early 80's Branca's line-up of musicians included Lee Renaldo, Thurston Moore, and Michael Gira which spawned Sonic Youth
and Swans
and paved the way for much of the indie rock as we know it today. Around 1980 Branca created compositions for guitar ensembles and orchestras of droning electric guitars and percussion. On Lesson No.1 and The Ascension, Branca's first two solo albums, the chiming, droning guitars, squalls of feedback, sledgehammers, dissonance, mallet guitars, and cacophonous tribal rhythms mark Branca's work as the first of its kind in rock music mixing composers like La Monte Young, Steve Reich
and Philip Glass with guitar work of the likes of Captain Beefheart
, Joy Division
. Lesson No.1 was the first album released on NYC no-wave label Ze records
and is a suiting title for an album as important in experimental music as it is. Branca has gone on to create 15 symphonies including a remarkable piece written for a French Organization called 2000 Guitars in celebration for the millenium that Branca was not excited about so he scrapped it because of the technical monstrosity of orchestrating 2000 guitars. He reluctantly later performed the piece as Symphony No.13: Hallucination City stripped down for 100 Guitars for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in New York City consisting of a phenomenal group of 100 guitarists and a single drummer.
Glenn Branca Website | Glenn Branca Info and The Ascension. Glenn Branca is an extremely influential avant-garde composer who's experimental roots in the No Wave band The Theoretical Girls formed in 1977 with friend and producer Wharton Teirs laid the foundation for No Wave bands in New York City in the late seventies and the 1980's post-punk noise rock to follow. Forming his first avant-garde experimental guitar orchestra in the early 80's Branca's line-up of musicians included Lee Renaldo, Thurston Moore, and Michael Gira which spawned Sonic Youth and Swans and paved the way for much of the indie rock as we know it today. Around 1980 Branca created compositions for guitar ensembles and orchestras of droning electric guitars and percussion. On Lesson No.1 and The Ascension, Branca's first two solo albums, the chiming, droning guitars, squalls of feedback, sledgehammers, dissonance, mallet guitars, and cacophonous tribal rhythms mark Branca's work as the first of its kind in rock music mixing composers like La Monte Young, Steve Reich and Philip Glass with guitar work of the likes of Captain Beefheart, Joy Division. Lesson No.1 was the first album released on NYC no-wave label Ze records and is a suiting title for an album as important in experimental music as it is. Branca has gone on to create 15 symphonies including a remarkable piece written for a French Organization called 2000 Guitars in celebration for the millenium that Branca was not excited about so he scrapped it because of the technical monstrosity of orchestrating 2000 guitars. He reluctantly later performed the piece as Symphony No.13: Hallucination City stripped down for 100 Guitars for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in New York City consisting of a phenomenal group of 100 guitarists and a single drummer. 
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